Of Princes and Paupers
by KiwiWizard
Summary: AU Pokespe. Green Oak is the Prince of Kanto but when he hears his family has been kidnapped, this doesn't stop him from immediately going to rescue them, even if his grandfather is against it. At his side are his servant Red, the thief Blue and others.
1. Of Kings and Kidnappers

Full Summary: AU Pokespe. Green Oak is the Prince of Kanto, but when he finds out that his mother and sister have been kidnapped, this doesn't stop him from immediately going to rescue them, even if his grandfather _is _against it. At his side are his faithful manservant Red and the thief Blue and her protégé Silver, both of which helped them escape the city. Oh and don't forget the stable boy they accidentally kidnapped on the way out.

Shippings: Special, Oldrival, Mangaquest, Soulsilver, Frantic, Commoner, Agency

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

**So, it never actually talks about Green's parents in the manga (unless I missed something), but in this they're going to be alive and around. Well, kidnapped, but you know, they were around to get kidnapped. **

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the plot. <strong>

* * *

><p>Of Princes and Paupers<br>By: KiwiWizard

* * *

><p>Chapter One: Of Kings and Kidnappers<p>

* * *

><p><strong>June 13<strong>**th**

Kanto Kingdom: Viridian City, Castle Indigo

_With Green_

King Samuel, the king of Kanto sat upon his plush crimson throne, his eyes intent upon the latest townsman requesting an audience. There were four thrones arranged on either side of his throne, a place for his son, his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren. Green was the only of one of these four in attendance. Green's parents and sister were on a trip to Johto, a trip that Green had opted out of, ostensibly to observe his grandfather, but in reality he thought their trip sounded tedious and boring.

Green's throne was much smaller in size than his grandfather's throne, and was also lacking the golden ornamentations. The two royal men had adopted similar expressions of concern, although Green's was only skin deep. Internally he actually couldn't care less about the person's appeal. It was just another person begging the king for things he most likely didn't deserve. Of course, he would be reprimanded if his grandfather or his parents knew that he felt this way, so Green just sighed mentally and worked on keeping up his façade of interest. Green's head felt weighed down by the thin, golden circlet on his brow and he wondered idly how much heavier his grandfather's thick, gem-encrusted crown must be.

The quiet audience was abruptly disturbed by the two huge doors to the throne room being flung open and an out of breath messenger sprinting up to King Samuel.

"King Samuel," the messenger huffed. "We received this note." The messenger took a deep breath than began reading aloud, "King Samuel, we have your son, his wife and your granddaughter in our custody. Give into our demands or you will never see them again…"

"What are the demands?" King Samuel asked, not allowing any fear to show on his face, though Green was certain he felt some.

"They want the kingdom," the messenger replied grimly.

King Samuel sighed, a dark and heavy sound. "That's obviously out of the question. Send out every knight we can spare. Rescuing my family is our number one priority now." The messenger bowed in respect, then set out to do his king's bidding.

"Grandfather," Green began once the room was empty again, everyone having been ushered out when the messenger arrived. "I think I should go look for our family."

"That's out of the question Green," Samuel objected. "You need to stay here in case the worst should happen and we cannot find our family. The most important thing is having an heir."

Green disagreed with his grandfather's sentiments, but he understood where he was coming from. Kingdoms without direct heirs were often drawn into bloody civil wars that could last decades. These were obviously to be avoided at all costs, however; Green knew that he was the strongest warrior in the Kingdom of Kanto, and consequently had the best chance of saving his family.

Abruptly, Green stood and took his leave of the throne room with a stiff bow to his grandfather. He roamed through the hallways, desperately trying to develop a way to escape the castle and save his family. The hallways were supposed to be empty, most people having left to plan the search for Green's family, which made Green immediately suspicious when he heard a rustling sound coming from the treasure room. Green crept to the doorway and peered around the corner.

Inside the room, sifting through the various piles of gold and jewels filling the room, was a girl dressed all in black. She was picking out the priciest pieces and shoving them into a large brown bag which was slung over her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Green demanded. The girl paused for a second, then turned to Green with a large grin on her face.

"I'm the new treasurer!" she exclaimed, leaning nonchalantly on the table.

"I _know _you're not the new treasurer _thief," _Green spat, and he was about to grab her to take down to the prison when a thought occurred to him. Somehow this girl had managed to sneak past all the guards and get all the way to the treasure room unnoticed. To Green's knowledge, no one had ever made it into the castle uninvited. This girl had managed to get _into _the castle; surely she could help Green get _out. _

"Listen thief, if you help me escape the castle without being seen, I won't turn you into the guards," Green offered.

The thief considered for a few moments, then sauntered over to Green and shook one of his hands. "It's a deal. And my name's Blue, not thief."

"So how do we get out?" Green asked.

"Just a second," Blue stated. "You haven't told me _your _name."

Green's expression remained impassive, but inside he was quite surprised. It had never occurred to him that the thief actually didn't know who he was. But that did explain why she pretended to be the new treasurer, if he had just been a servant he might not have known that she _wasn't _the new treasurer. Although her shoving gold and jewels into her bag probably would've given it away anyway.

"…I'm Verde," Green lied, deciding against giving his real name. Sure, it wasn't very inventive, but it served its purpose.

"Verde? You don't look like a Verde." Blue said suspiciously. Green kept up his emotionless façade and finally she shrugged, grabbed his hand and led him through the hallways with such confidence it was obvious she knew where she was going.

The two made their way quickly and quietly through the hallways with no incident, when someone suddenly walked out in front of them and exclaimed, "Green!"

Green groaned, count on his personal servant Red to give away his true identity with the first word out of his mouth

"Wait," Blue said startled. "Green, like _Prince _Green?"

"Yeah!" Red answered. "And I'm Red, his manservant." Red and Green had known each other their whole lives and once he was old enough, Red had been assigned as Green's servant.

"When I heard about your family I knew you'd try to get out of here, so I packed a bag for you. And I'm coming with you of course," Red explained. This comment made Green notice that Red was in fact carrying a bulky bag and was dressed in a non-descript brown travel outfit instead of his usual servant's garb.

"Red," Green cut in before Red could reveal any more information. "This is Blue, she's a thief."

Blue gave him a cheeky wave.

"Here Green." Red said as he handed Green an outfit much like the one he was wearing. Green quickly ducked into one of the nearby rooms and changed out of his gaudy red and gold outfit into the new, dark brown travel clothing. He hurried back out into the hallway and was relieved to see that Blue was still there.

"Take this," Red added, handing Green one more item. It was a dark brown belt with six round slots, two of which were already occupied with Poké Balls.

"Scyther and Charmander?" Green queried.

"Of course," Red verified. Red had a belt similar to the one Green was wearing, which also had two occupied slots. Green knew that they would be Red's two favorite Pokémon, his Bulbasaur, Saur, and his Pikachu, Pika.

"So you guys ready to escape now?" Blue asked. "Of course, now that I know I'm helping the _prince, _I do expect some more compensation…"

"Just keep what you stole already, that should be more than enough," Green said.

Blue lifted her bag, as if judging the value of the contents, then grinned and nodded. "To the window!" she exclaimed, setting off with Red and Green trailing behind her.

"How did you get in here?" Green wondered idly. "We're going out a window, that's not how you got in is it? There aren't any windows on the first floor."

"The way in only works for one person, and it's hard to hide bags of treasure," Blue explained. As she said this her bag…_winked _at Green, then gave him a cheeky smile.

"The bag has a face!" Red yelled, pointing at the bag.

"It's a Ditto," Green corrected.

"Oh, that makes more sense," Red realized. Green deduced that Blue must've used her Ditto to change her appearance to a castle worker's to get in. Since she was using her Ditto as a bag, she must've been planning to escape through the window even before Green caught her.

We finally arrived at the window Blue had had her sights on. Blue reached into her Ditto bag and pulled out a Poké Ball. She released the ball and red light escaped, coalescing into a round pink Pokémon. "Jiggly!" the Jigglypuff exclaimed.

"Alright Jiggly, let's fly!" Blue exclaimed. The Jigglypuff jumped out the window and puffed up to multiple times its original size. Blue hopped up onto the window ledge and grabbed onto the floating Jigglypuff's leg.

Despite his misgivings, Green hurriedly joined Blue on the Jigglypuff, afraid that Blue would ditch them. Red followed after Green and latched onto Jiggly's arm. Jiggly gently descended and landed in a clearing directly below them. As they were falling, Green realized why Blue had picked that particular window. It was around the back of the castle out of view of the town and the guard towers. Green felt grudging respect for the thief, she knew her business.

They landed in the clearing and everyone hopped off of Jiggly who deflated to her normal size.

"Blue, who are these guys?" an annoyed male voice demanded. Green caught sight of the speaker. It was a boy whose bright red hair counteracted any stealth his black outfit brought him.

"Don't worry Silver," Blue calmed. "I made a deal with them. I get them out of the castle and in return I get to keep all this treasure." She showed Silver the contents of the Ditto bag as she said this. Silver's eyes widened slightly as he stared at all the treasure Blue had 'acquired.'

"So Silver and I are headed out of the city. You two want to come with us?" Blue offered Red and Green.

"What?" Silver exclaimed.

"We _are_ headed out of the city, we should go with them Green," Red suggested.

Before Green could express how terrible he thought this idea was, Blue was already telling them about her plan. "Great! Silver and I already planned out the best route to the stables, and once we're there we'll steal a Rapidash or a Zebstrika or something."

Green had to admit (mentally anyway) that this was actually a very good plan. The stables were almost always empty and as long as they could there without being seen they should be home free.

So the four of them set out along Blue and Silver's preplanned route. Luckily, Silver and Blue were no amateurs; their path was perfectly planned, out of sight of all the guard towers and townsfolk. They arrived at the stables undetected and went inside thinking that they were free and clear. Unfortunately, one of the people working in the stables was unusually dedicated and spent much longer than the average stable worker grooming the Pokémon.

The four entered and the stable boy whirled around confused. His lemon yellow hair was covered by a straw hat. "P-prince Green?" he asked, his voice sounding very high pitched and sort of…feminine. He cleared his throat and spoke in a deeper tone, "Do you need something?"

Blue and Silver exchanged a look, then Blue ran at the boy, tackled him and pulled him up in front of her on the nearest Pokémon, which happened to be a Rapidash.

"Mount up everyone!" Blue ordered, keeping her hands securely around the boy to keep him from escaping.

Silver got on a Bliztle, Red a Ponyta and Green a Zebstrika.

Green had been expecting Blue to toss the stable boy off the Rapidash as they left, but Blue kept him in front of her as they rode off.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

The second the stable 'boy' had spoken, Blue had realized it was a girl. Only boys were allowed to work in the stables, so if a girl wished to get a job there she would have to pretend to be a boy. What Blue couldn't understand is why the girl would want the job in the first place. Being a stable boy (or girl) wasn't a particularly desirable job. Blue liked to collect interesting things, and deeming the girl an interesting thing, she made a split second decision to take the girl with them.

* * *

><p>And so Prince Green's attempt to go and rescue his kidnapped family by himself, ended up as a four person (plus one kidnapped stable girl) entourage travelling across Kanto, their first destination (or Green's anyway) Johto, the place where his family was visiting.<p>

But these four were not the only unexpected people Prince Green would meet, no his destiny would have him cross paths with many more unique individuals. Their fates changing the same day that Green's did.

* * *

><p>Johto Kingdom: New Bark Town, Duke Elm's Estate<p>

_With Gold_

"Come _on _Super Serious Gal," complained Gold, who was leaning haphazardly on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

The girl, who Gold referred to as 'super serious gal' shook her head angrily and grumbled, "Shut _up _Gold. I'm not going with you on your 'super awesome adventure.'" She said the last three words with air quotes and sarcasm in her voice. The girl was busy preparing a meal and was currently in the vegetable slicing stage.

Gold stood up and leaned over the counter to look the girl in the eyes, which wasn't the best idea as it put him in close proximity to the knife the girl was holding. The girl flicked her eyes pointedly to the knife. Gold got the message and backed up abruptly.

"Crystal, is lunch ready yet?" asked a short, blonde boy as poked his head around the door to the kitchen.

"Almost Emerald," Crystal replied. Emerald's head disappeared back behind the door again. "Gold, get out of here and get ready for dinner," Crystal ordered.

"You know, _you _work for _me," _Gold pointed out. Crystal violently sliced the tomato on her chopping board and Gold quickly retreated, deciding he'd bring it up again later when there _wasn't _a knife in her hand.

Gold, Crystal and Emerald lived in the estate of Duke Elm. Duke Elm and his wife were unable to have children, so they had adopted two children, Gold and Emerald. Caring for two children as well as managing their estate proved to be quite a bit of work, so they decided to hire an extra maid to keep the house in order.

Crystal was the maid they had hired and Gold had been bothering her ever since. Lately he'd gotten worse though. Gold had always talked of leaving and exploring the world, but now he was talking about it nonstop. Crystal had a bad feeling about this and was afraid that Gold was about to do something drastic and crazy. As it turns out, she was completely right.

* * *

><p>Later that Night<p>

_With Crystal_

Crystal was sitting in her assigned room reading a novel. She heard a shuffling noise outside her door, but she just ignored it. Gold and Emerald were known to walk around the house at night. So she was _not _expecting her door to open suddenly and for someone to dash in, cover her mouth and drag her out of the house. She struggled violently until her kidnapper whispered in her ear, "Calm down super serious gal. It's me, Gold."

Her terror was abruptly replaced with burning anger, but Gold was much stronger than her, so she gave up fighting him. Once they were so far from the estate Crystal could barely make it out in the distance, Gold released her.

"It's time for our super awesome adventure!" Gold exclaimed.

"No," Crystal stated.

"I've actually thought this through," Gold replied. "The law states women are not allowed to travel unaccompanied, so by law, you have to stick with me."

Crystal stared at him in horror, half because Gold had actually thought something through (and that was always bad) and half because of her situation.

"Come on! It'll be fun!"

"Sure it will be…" Crystal replied skeptically.

* * *

><p><strong>The Next Day (June 14<strong>**th****)**

Back at the Elm Estate

_With Emerald_

Crystal had been late making breakfast, so Emerald went to her room make sure she was okay. There was no sign of her in her room. He anxiously went to inform his adoptive father Duke Elm, who in turn informed him that Gold was also missing.

Emerald immediately realized what must have happened. Gold had finally activated his plan and had dragged Crystal with him. Refusing to be left out, Emerald immediately made a plan to leave as well.

That night Emerald left the estate and set out after Crystal and Gold, unfortunately he didn't actually know which way they went, and ended up headed in an entirely different direction.

* * *

><p><strong>Back to June 13<strong>**th**** Again**

Kanto Kingdom: Viridian City, Guard Tower

_With No One_

"Everyone, locating the royal family is our number one priority," barked a tall man garbed in a suit golden suit of armor which marked him as an officer. He was standing in front of the all the soldiers stationed in Viridian City. Every soldier was wearing armor in the same style as the speaker, but theirs was colored silver instead of gold. Every soldier in the army looked exactly the same, the helmets they wore obscuring any differences between them. One of the soldiers was especially excited about having a mission, not that he was happy the royal family was kidnapped or anything, he just wanted to see some action. After all, he had worked harder than anyone to get where he was.

"Ruby," the man in golden armor said to the excited soldier. "We've just gotten word; Prince Green is now missing as well. Due to your exemplary record, I am promoting you and you are to locate and bring Green home." The officer proffered a sword towards Ruby. "This is your symbol of station, and people will now refer to you as Sir Ruby."

"Thank you sir!" Ruby thanked and saluted respectfully.

"We believe Green stole a mount from the stable, you should start there."

Ruby nodded and set out for the stables to look for clues.

* * *

><p>Kanto Kingdom: On the Road<p>

_With Ruby_

A group of people walked along the dusty road between towns, interspersed with covered wagons being pulled by sturdy Tauros and Bouffalant. The people all wore loose, colorful clothing and a lot of glittering jewelry. At the front of the group a girl walked, adorned in a red shirt and a flowing blue skirt.

"Lyra, where are we stopping today?" asked a Ruby, who was wearing his signature white hat and red clothing.

"I don't know yet Ruby," Lyra replied airily. "Let's just see where the road takes us."

Ruby sighed slightly exasperated. The group was a band of gypsies, but Ruby wasn't originally one of them. He had met them when they stopped at his hometown, and they had offered him the chance to travel with them after he made them new outfits. Ruby loved travelling with the gypsies, but getting used to not having a plan was difficult, especially since his father made plans for everything.

Lyra was the appointed leader of the gypsies, but Ruby really wasn't sure why. She was one of the younger gypsies and she didn't really seem to have astounding leadership skills. Not that Ruby had anything against Lyra, they actually got along very well; he just wasn't sure why she was the leader. Whenever he asked any of the others why she was the leader, they just laughed and said that it was obvious. So Ruby shrugged it off and figured it was a gypsy thing. Later he would find out that the appointment was in no way random, but, it would still be a while until Ruby discovered this reason.

* * *

><p>Sinnoh Kingdom: Berlitz Estate<p>

_With Platina_

The Berlitz's were an extremely powerful and wealthy family in the kingdom of Sinnoh. They prided themselves on being very knowledgeable about the world. In light of this, the Berlitz children embark upon a coming of age ceremony. This ceremony consists of a journey through all the kingdoms to better understand their neighbors. Platina's birthday was in a few months, so it was time for her to depart on her journey

Platina was standing before her father, her two personal guards, Dia and Pearl, standing beside her. She knew what she had been summoned for, and her father confirmed her suspicions.

"Platina, it is time for you to begin your coming of age journey. Dia and Pearl will accompany you on your way," her father stated gesturing to the two men. This wasn't a surprise to Platina either, after all the two had been her protectors for most of her life. After saying a fond farewell to her father, Platina and her guards set off towards Johto, the usual starting point of the pilgrimage.

"This is exciting!" Pearl exclaimed once they were off ofthe estate. "And these new outfits are great!" Platina's father had given Dia and Pearl new sets of armor in commemoration of the event. They had matching sets of armor, except that Dia's had a red tinge, while Pearl's was tinted yellow.

Dia nodded and reached into his bag, pulled out a sandwich and began to take a bite, but before he could, Pearl yelled, "Stop! We need to save that for later!"

Platina giggled resulting in Pearl demanding, "Did you just laugh?"

"No. I did not laugh," Platina refuted.

"You laughed!"

"No, I did not."

"Yes you did!"

Dia resumed in the consumption of his sandwich, Pearl having been sufficiently distracted.

* * *

><p>Unova Kingdom: Castelia City, BW Bakery<p>

_With White_

White resided on the second floor of a very small, but successful bakery in Nimbasa City. It was a boring life, but White didn't mind too much, after all she had it much better than many other people in the kingdom. However, if she was being honest with herself, her true wish was to work in theater. Unfortunately, the only people who got the opportunity to do so were almost exclusively nobles, and those who weren't nobles were still from incredibly influential families. A baker's daughter was by no means noble or influential, so White kept her dreams buried, trying to be content with her simple life.

White stood behind the counter, waiting for customers to arrive. She was wearing her usual BW white apron over a long navy blue dress. Her elbows leaned on the counter and her head was propped upon her hands. She inhaled the scent of fresh bread, but she was immune to it, growing up in a bakery had desensitized her to it.

That particular day was the anniversary of King Alder's rule. In celebration, the townsfolk were holding a parade and the nobles were having an extravagant party at the castle. White wasn't expecting any customers, especially since the food at the parade was free, but she had made a deal with her father to keep the bakery open every day that he was gone. Her father had left a few days ago on a bread tasting tour in the hope of baking better bread.

Despite all these occurrences that left her alone on this celebratory day, she was actually quite excited. A few weeks earlier a new customer had come into the store, and they had become fast friends. His name was Black and he had been brought to the city by the king. White wasn't sure of the details, but White knew that whatever his job was, it was important. Important enough aht he was invited to the party at the castle. Black had promised to come to the bakery right after the party and tell White all about it, so White was excited. She eagerly awaited her friends return.

Because of all of this, White was quite surprised when a customer _did _enter her store. "Huh? I-I mean welcome!" White greeted. The customer was an older man with messy green hair, wearing an opulent yellow and blue robe, which White found hideous.

"Hello dear," the man greeted. His voice put White immediately on her guard. It reminded her of snake and she sensed that he was a threat.

"Would you like something?" White asked politely, even though her instincts were screaming at her to get him to leave.

"I've heard that your bakery supplies bread for the castle. Is this true?" the creepy man asked.

"Yes, we take great pride in having the best bread in the city," White replied uncertainly.

"Thank you. Go Butterfree!"

"What are you –"

Before White could finish her question, the man had already given his Pokémon the order, "Sleep Powder!"

Powder flew from the bug Pokémon's wings towards White, who collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

* * *

><p>Castle Castelia<p>

_With Black_

A plot threatening King Alder had been discovered about a month ago. In light of this information, a taskforce had been put together to discover who was behind the threat on King Alder's life and prevent any attacks from reaching him. Black was one of the one's called in to join the taskforce. Bringing in someone that young was a controversial decision to some, but ultimately it was deemed necessary. Despite his youth, Black was already one of the greatest scholars in Unova and one of the smartest.

Black was currently attending the castle party for King Alder's anniversary. The ballroom of the castle was so full of people that Black couldn't even make out the walls of the room. Unfortunately, Black was unable to fully enjoy the party, as it was the perfect setting for an attack on the king. Really just cancelling the party would've been the best option, but king Alder categorically refused. He claimed that forgoing the party would be a sign of fear. Personally, Black thought that the king was being stupid, putting himself in a high risk situation just to appear strong. But he was the king and Black, no matter how smart he was, still wasn't anywhere near important enough to refute the king's decision.

There were more members of the taskforce dispersed throughout the crowd, trying to identify threats. Apparently one of them succeeded as someone screamed, "Everyone stop! The bread is poisoned!"

Immediately, everyone got as far from the bread as possible. Luckily it had just arrived and none had been eaten yet. Black was more worried about where the bread was from to focus on the attack though. "Where is this bread from?"King Alder demanded.

"BW Bakery," one of his aides replied.

"Well arrest the people working there!" King Alder ordered.

_White! _Black thought alarmed. He snuck out of the party as quickly as possible and sprinted down the side streets to avoid the parade, and thus hopefully beat the guards. Black knew that White was alone at the bakery, and there was no way she was responsible. She would never intentionally try to hurt someone. Soon, He arrived at the bakery and threw the door open. At first he didn't see anyone, but then he caught sight of White's unconscious body lying on the floor behind the counter. Black hopped over the counter and gently shook White awake.

"White! White! Wake up," he urged.

White blinked sleepily and mumbled, "Black? Is the party over already?"

"White, we have to leave _now," _Black ordered.

"Why do we have to leave?"

"You're bread was poisoned and used in an attack on the king. Come _on,_" Black insisted, dragging White out of the bakery and through more quiet streets to get out of the city unnoticed.

"The man…There was a man who came in and put me to sleep. He must have been the one who poisoned the bread," White theorized.

"I know it wasn't you White," Black reassured. "But, it looks really bad right now, and there's no evidence supporting your statement. People are going to want to see someone take the blame, and right now you're all they've got. We have to get to another kingdom, you'll be safe there."

White nodded sadly. "Thank you Black…" The pair made it out of the city without incident and began running towards Johto, the closet kingdom to Unova.

* * *

><p>All these people were simultaneously heading for the Johto Kingdom where, one way or another, their paths would collide. And it would be spectacular.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

**So all the main characters have been introduced except for Sapphire and Wally (and Yellow never had her name mentioned, but it should be obvious who she is) and Ruby being in two places was not a typo. Anyway, this story will update slower since I'm focusing on MAGE, but I'll still update it when I can. **

**Reviews are appreciated :)**


	2. Of Soldiers and Sapphire

**Author Note:**

**I feel kind of bad about the Ruby thing because all of you had really different and cool ideas about what it is. Sorry it's not actually that amazing but well, hopefully you won't be too disappointed.**

**On another note, I would like to thank all of you for the wonderful reviews; you were all so nice and encouraging :) Thank you to people who favorited and alerted as well. You guys are amazing! :D**

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Of Soldiers and Sapphire<p>

* * *

><p><strong>June 13<strong>**th**

Kanto Kingdom: On the Road to Johto

_With No One_

Sir Ruby had visited the stables immediately after receiving his assignment. He didn't find any clues, but he wasn't really expecting to, Prince Green was way too careful to leave an easy to follow trail. Luckily for Sir Ruby, he knew where the Prince was going, so there was no need to follow him. If he went to where the prince was going, towards Johto, hopefully he would find the prince on the way. His jaunt to the stables was not wasted though; he was given leave to borrow the fastest mount in the city, a particularly nasty Dodrio, who was appropriately named Wicked.

Sir Ruby managed to mount the Pokémon without getting bitten by any of its three heads and pointed the creature's middle head towards Johto, hoping to catch up with the prince.

* * *

><p><strong>June 14<strong>**th**

Kanto Kingdom: Further Along on the Road to Johto

_With Yellow_

Yellow was so completely confused that she had gone emotionally numb. She knew that once the shock wore off she would probably be incapable of thinking for quite a while afterwards, so she took advantage of her shocked state to sort through what had happened to her. Instead of a normal day, like she had been expecting, the Prince had come into her stable and then she had been tackled then kidnapped by a crazy girl. Yellow still didn't know where they were going or why the girl decided to bring her along, but she assumed they would tell her once they stopped.

It was already late morning the day after they had left and they hadn't taken a single break. By now the four Pokémon were completely exhausted, so Prince Green finally signaled everyone to a halt. They stopped in a grassy patch a little ways off the road on the crest of a high cliff.

"Time for introductions!" the girl exclaimed as they sat down. She gestured towards herself and then continued, "I'm Blue, this is my associate Silver, Prince Green you know and this is Green's servant Red!"

"Nice to meet you," Yellow said robotically. "I'm Yellow."

"Pleased to meet ya!" Red exclaimed, giving her a broad smile. Yellow smiled back uncertainly.

The Rapidash with them lay down on the ground next to Yellow, putting its head in her lap. _Tired…_, the Rapidash whined. Yellow gently stroked its head, but she didn't reply to its comment not wanting the others to know about her powers. Generally when people found out she could understand the voices of Pokémon, she was declared a witch and witches were almost universally hated. She had been through more than enough because of her ability and realized it was best if no one ever found out she had it. _Someone is coming, _the Rapidash warned, interrupting her thoughts.

Yellow searched around, but didn't see anyone. Then she spotted a ball of dust making its way towards them. "W-what's that?" Yellow stuttered, pointing.

The other four turned and watched as the dust came closer until they could eventually make out a rider upon a Dodrio amidst the dust.

"It's one of my father's soldiers!" Green shouted as he spotted the silver armor. "We have to run."

"We'll never outrun Wicked," Yellow refuted recognizing the cruel Dodrio. "He's the fastest Pokémon in Viridian City, and our mounts are already exhausted."

"Well, let's see what he wants then," Blue suggested.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

The soldier was clad in the usual silver armor of the Kanto army, his face completely obscured by the silver helmet he was wearing. "Prince Green, I'm Sir Ruby and I've come to bring you back to the castle," the soldier stated, his voice distorted by the metal helmet.

"I'm going to rescue my family," Green objected. "I won't let you stop me."

"Fine." Sir Ruby jumped off of Wicked and ordered, "Go Wicked!" Sir Ruby yelled pointed towards Green's group. "Tri Attack!" The Dodrio's three heads released three different moves, fire, ice and lightning creating a vortex, hurtling straight towards the five.

Blue sent out Jiggly and latched onto Jiggly's leg as it hurriedly inflated and floated above the elemental attack. The Tri Attack the Dodrio had used was so powerful, Blue completely lost sight of her four companions in the chaos.

After the smoke cleared, Blue signaled Jiggly lower, but she decided to stay out of range of the battle going on.

"Scyther! X-scissor!" Green commanded. His Scyther charged at Wicked, slicing with its claws. This forced Wicked to jump backwards, which in turn made Sir Ruby move backwards as well, which put him directly underneath Blue. Which gave her an idea. Blue commanded Jiggly lower still and then dropped down directly on top of Sir Ruby, knocking him over. Sir Ruby and Blue wrestled around on the ground for a while. Eventually, Blue got a hold of his helmet and yanked it off, revealing a feminine face and long brown hair.

Everyone stared at the soldier in shock. As the soldier was not a man, but a woman. "Again?" Blue asked surprised.

"What do you mean again?" Red wondered.

"Nothing!" Blue said in a sing-song voice. Red seemed to accept this, but Green's eyes flicked towards Yellow suspiciously. Yellow avoided his gaze nervously.

"So who are you actually?" Green asked, his attention back on the soldier.

"I really _am _a soldier. I just chose a different name. My name's actually Sapphire," 'Sir Ruby' replied.

"If you were going to pick a fake name for yourself, why did you pick a girl's name?" Blue wondered.

"Ruby's not a girly name!" Sapphire exclaimed. "Ruby's the name of my childhood hero. He was so strong, it made me wanna be stronger too! When I decided ta pretend ta be a boy to become a soldier, I named myself in his memory."

This story was met with silence, then Blue commented, "Weren't you speaking in proper words a minute ago?"

"I had ta learn how ta speak proper when I was gonna work in the castle. Since ya know who I am anyway, there's no point in tryin anymore."

"That was the first thing you thought of to say in response to that story?" Green asked incredulous.

"Where's Silver?" Yellow suddenly asked changing the subject.

Blue glanced around and realized Silver wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"He didn' fall off the cliff did he?" Sapphire asked nervously.

"Even if he fell he has a Murkrow," Blue said.

"Uh…I'm not sure he does," Red remarked, holding up Silver's bag for everyone to see. There were two Poké Balls sitting inside. Blue went completely pale and snatched the bag away from Red, releasing the Pokémon. To her horror, it was a Sneasel and a Murkrow.

"Silver!" she screamed. She sprinted to the edge of the cliff and knelt down, searching for Silver. Unfortunately, there was too much fog for her to see all the way to the ground. The others joined her at the edge, but none of them could see anything either.

"Jiggly!" Blue called. Her Jigglypuff wobbled over to edge. Blue hugged Jigglypuff and she jumped off the cliff, Jiggly inflating as they fell.

"Ah! Blue!" Yellow cried as Blue faded into the fog.

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

"Let's go after her!" the soldier girl said. She reached for one of the Poké Balls at her waist and sent out a Tropius. She hopped onto it and gestured for the others to join her. Green climbed up with Red and Yellow close behind, but before they could join him, the girl ordered her Tropius away deserting them.

The wind from the wings buffeted Yellow and Red violently, knocking them both over. Yellow sat up and shook her head; belatedly realizing her hat was no longer upon her head. Her long blonde hair was now free and she glanced at Red nervously.

"You have long hair," Red commented surprised.

Yellow was so shocked she blurted out," Of course I do, I'm a girl."

"You are?" Red exclaimed.

It got really awkward after that. Red kept staring at her searchingly and Yellow was fidgeting nervously. Yellow should have been happy her disguise was so good, but she was strangely upset by how shocked he was that she was actually a girl. Desperately looking for a way to change the subject she glanced around the clearing.

"What happened to all our mounts?" Yellow wondered. The four horse-like Pokémon they had ridden in on were gone and so was Wicked, the awful Dodrio, though Yellow was happy about the absence of the latter.

Red finally took his eyes off her and searched around as well. "I have no idea," he replied.

Silence prevailed again, until Red suddenly suggested, "Well, since we're just waiting anyway we might as well have lunch!" This seemed like as good idea as any to Yellow, so the two seated themselves in the grass and began to eat some of the bread and cheese Red had packed for the journey the day before.

* * *

><p><em>With Green<em>

Once Sapphire had gotten Green onto her Tropius, Pilo, she commanded Pilo to return to Viridian City. "If we go back to Viridian City, I'll expose you as a girl," Green threatened. "And you'll be the one _in _jail instead of the one putting people there."

"But I made an oath to follow the King's orders," Sapphire objected. "I _have _to take ya back."

"I'll make you a deal," Green offered. "If you help me find my family then I won't expose you _and _you'll be a hero when we return. There will probably even be songs written about you. But if you bring me back _now_ you'll be seen as a traitor for lying about your gender."

Sapphire considered this for a few minutes then finally gave her answer as she commanded, "Alright, Pilo, turn around. After the Jigglypuff girl!" Pilo veered around and started flying back the way they came.

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

Silver had gotten knocked off the cliff by the force of the Dodrio's attack. He wasn't bothered at first and calmly reached for the Poké Ball containing his Murkrow. Then he realized that his Poké Balls weren't with him. That's when he started to panic.

* * *

><p>At the Bottom of the Cliff<p>

_With Lyra_

Ruby and Lyra were chatting as the caravan ambled along the dirt road. Lyra's Marill, Bubbles was bouncing along beside her master, adding in her opinions every once in a while with a cheerful, "Mar, marill!"

The gentle rhythm of the group was abruptly disturbed by the Sentret that was on lookout duty. It started screaming and jumping up and down, its paw pointed skyward. Lyra and Ruby both looked up and were quite surprised by what they saw. There was someone falling from the sky. Lyra immediately sprang into action.

"Bubbles, break his fall with Waterfall!" Lyra ordered. The small blue creature dashed to the landing zone and created a vortex of water above itself, which the falling person fell into. The water swirled the person around, but it served its purpose. When the person hit the ground he was only wet and dizzy instead of…well, having all of his bones broken. All in all Bubbles looked very pleased with herself.

"Good job Bubbles!" Lyra congratulated as she ran over, patting her Marill on the head. The Marill grinned at her trainer. Lyra then shifted focus to the boy. He was lying on the ground groaning and he was completely drenched, but he seemed fine. "Are you okay?" Lyra asked.

"I was just thrown off a cliff into a water vortex. What do you think?" he grumbled.

Lyra huffed angrily. "You should be thanking me! Bubbles and I just save you!"

"Bubbles?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, Bubbles!"

The guy sat up and he looked quite comical. His bright red hair was plastered to his face and his black outfit was dripping. If Lyra hadn't been so annoyed she would have been laughing hysterically. Which Ruby _was_. The guy glared at him.

"I'm Lyra," Lyra introduced. "Leader of the Fortune Gypsies! And this is Ruby."

"Silver."

"Silver?"

"That's my name. Fortune gypsies, that's a weird name."

"It's more of a title really," Lyra said, forgetting her irritation for the moment. "Each gypsy tribe has a thing. My tribe is the fortune tellers!"

"Whatever. Look, do you have a flying Pokémon I could borrow, I need to get back up there." Silver pointed upwards.

"Nope," Lyra replied. "I might be able to get Bubbles to Water Gun you over."

"No thanks."

"Well, I guess you're stuck with us for now," Lyra stated. "Let's go Ruby, the caravan's getting ahead of us." Ruby nodded and the pair hurried off after the caravan, which hadn't stopped for their rescue maneuver. Silver glanced between the cliff and the gypsies for a few second, but ultimately decided to follow after the gypsies.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

Once Jiggly had landed, Blue searched frantically for Silver, but there was no sign of him, just a huge puddle of water. Jiggly pointed at the marks in the road and Blue realized they were a combination of wheel tracks, footprints and Tauros and Bouffalant hoof prints. _Gypsies, _Blue thought. Blue figured the gypsies must have saved him somehow. Since he wasn't anywhere around, he was probably still with him. There were many worse people that Silver could be stuck with, so all in all Blue was okay with the situation.

Blue released one of the Poké Balls she had been gripping tightly and Silver's Murkrow appeared. "Murkrow, take Sneasel," as Blue said this she handed the other Poké Ball clenched in her hands to the Murkrow, who took it in one of its talons. "Now go find Silver. He went that way." She pointed down the way the wagon tracks and footprints led. The Murkrow nodded and was about to take off, but Blue gave it one more thing. She handed it a piece of paper and explained, "Please give him this letter. It should help him find me when he's sick of the gypsies." This time the Murkrow took off uninterrupted and flew off into the distance.

Blue watched it until she heard a heavy thud behind her. She quickly turned around and beheld Sapphire and Green. They both hopped off of Sapphire's Tropius and walked over to her. "Did you find him?" Green asked.

"No," Blue replied. "I think he must be with the gypsies." She gestured to the tracks.

"Ick. I don't like Gypsies," the girl soldier commented.

"Let's just go find Red and Yellow again," Green suggested. The three of them (plus Jiggly) mounted Sapphire's Tropius which ascended up to the top of the cliff. Red and Yellow were sitting in the grass, sharing lunch. Blue noted that Yellow's hat was off, revealing a long ponytail and she was blushing noticeably. Suddenly Blue had a new mission; Yellow and Red would be together, she would make sure of it.

"Sapphire's coming with us to rescue my family," Green informed, his comment directed at Red since Blue and Yellow were incidental and he wasn't sure what their plans were yet.

"The more the merrier!" Red enthused.

"What happened to Silver?" Yellow asked anxiously.

"He's off with some gypsies," Blue replied flippantly.

"You don't want to look for him some more?" Red asked.

"Nah! Gypsies have great treasure, so he'll probably rob them and get back to us. I sent his Pokémon back to him so he can take care of himself."

"Let's get goin' then!" Sapphire ordered. Red and Yellow hurriedly packed up their meal Sapphire picked up her helmet and attached the Poké Ball containing a returned Pilo back on her belt.

After Blue threw a fit about the four horse-like Pokémon's disappearance, the five travelers left continued towards Johto on foot.

* * *

><p>Johto Kingdom:<p>

_With Gold_

Crystal was_ extremely _unhappy, but Gold was confident that he could keep her with him. She was so serious all the time there no way she would risk breaking the law by travelling by herself. Gold usually found that law decreeing that women could not travel alone to be ridiculous, but it was in his favor this time, so he was actually glad it existed.

"Gold, where are we going?" Crystal asked annoyed.

"No idea!" Gold replied. "Isn't it great?"

"No, it really isn't." Gold ignored that last comment and continued skipping happily down the road, Crystal following exasperatedly.

The pair headed down the road for a while until eventually a town came into view. They picked up the pace once they saw it, eager to have something to eat as Gold hadn't thought to bring food with them. When they arrived, they headed straight for the inn which, as it did in most towns, doubled as a tavern.

The pair entered the inn to find that every table except for one was already occupied. Gold quickly claimed the table and a Crystal reluctantly sat across from him. The server eventually got around to them and offered them bread. Gold immediately began to devour the bread as fast as possible, while Crystal paid the man. She was extremely lucky she kept her coin purse on her at all times, or she would be completely dependent on Gold.

As they ate, the tavern continued to fill, people having no choice but to be seated with people they were not acquainted with. So it wasn't too much of a surprise when Gold and Crystal were joined by more travelers. It was a party of three, a wealthy looking woman and two guards, one with black hair and one with blonde. The woman slid into the booth beside Crystal and the guards joined Gold on the other side.

"Hi there!" Gold greeted. Crystal glared at him in such a way Gold knew she was reminding him to mind his manners. But as he did with much of the advice Crystal gave him, he ignored it. "I'm Gold and this is Crystal."

"Nice to meet you," the blonde soldier said a bit uncertainly. "I'm Pearl, that's Dia and this is the Lady Berlitz."

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," Crystal stated politely.

Lady Berlitz inclined her head and replied, "You as well."

"Would you like some bread?" Crystal offered, holding the basket out towards them. Dia immediately accepted and began shoving bread into his mouth.

Gold and Crystal watched, amazed at the rate he consumed the bread, for a few seconds before Gold turned to Lady Berlitz and asked, "What brings you three here?"

Lady Berlitz was evasive in the beginning, but eventually Gold managed to get more out of the trio and discovered that they were going on a tour around the world. At this news he exclaimed, "We're going on a world tour as well!"

"We should go together!" Dia suggested.

"What?" Pearl shouted. "We don't know them Dia!"

"But they offered me bread," Dia stated as if this fact ensured they were kind people.

"I think they should accompany us," Lady Berlitz declared.

"What? You think so too?" Pearl asked aghast.

"The point of my journey is to learn more about the world. These two are Johto natives. We should become friends with them."

Gold didn't quite understand this logic, or how she knew they were Johto natives, but he decided to make use of it. "Yeah! We can teach you all about Johto!" What Gold was actually thinking was, _Well Crystal can teach you._

After a few more objections from Pearl, it was eventually decided that the five of them would explore the world together. Gold couldn't wait. Crystal was a bit less enthusiastic.

* * *

><p>Kanto Kingdom: Gypsy Caravan<p>

_With Silver_

Silver didn't particularly like gypsies, but they were rumored to have amazing treasure. If he could make them trust him enough then he'd be able to get access to their treasure stash. "Hey white hat guy!" Silver called out to Ruby, who was walking with Lyra.

"Yeah," he replied.

"You don't seem like a gypsy," Silver commented.

"He's new!" Lyra chimed in. "We just invited him to join a few weeks ago."

"And your name's Ruby," Silver mused.

"So? What's wrong with the name Ruby?" Ruby grumbled.

"I was fighting a soldier named Ruby when I fell," Silver replied.

"What? Someone with the same name as me has such a barbaric occupation?" Ruby asked aghast.

Before Silver could respond to that something flew into his back. Silver whirled around and found his Murkrow holding a note and Poké Ball in its talons. "Murkrow!" Silver exclaimed, happy to see his Pokémon. He returned his Murkrow and clipped both Poké Balls to his belt. Then he unfolded the note and began to read. In it Blue hoped that he was alright and that she was planning to continue travelling with Green for the moment. Writing something about how he was 'interesting.' Silver decided he would continue with the gypsies until he got his hands on their treasure, and then he'd find Blue again. His mind made up, Silver started making small talk with the gypsies beginning his plan to scam the gypsies.

* * *

><p>Unova Kingdom<p>

_With White_

Black and White had been running all night, and White simply couldn't walk another step. She collapsed onto the ground, and no matter how hard she tried to get up, she just physically wasn't able to.

Once Black realized White had fallen, he quickly ran back to her. "White, we have to keep going," he urged.

"I can't walk anymore…" White huffed.

"We're almost to Johto. Just keep going a bit further," Black begged. White shook her head.

"I'm sorry Black. I just can't."

Black looked thoughtful, then he pulled out one of his Poké Balls. He opened it and a Braviary appeared. "Brav, can you carry White?" Black asked his Braviary. "We just need to get over the Johto border."

Brav nodded with a squawk and hovered so got a hold of White. She clung for dear life as the bird laboriously flew, carrying White. As they travelled, Brav grew more and more exhausted gradually getting lower and lower to the ground.

Black stopped abruptly, Brav stopping next to him. "White, you see that city?" he asked pointing in the distance. Brav dropped White and sat on the ground, completely worn out. White gazed in the direction Black pointed. "That city is inside the Johto border. If we get there, we're safe."

White managed the rest on foot, having had a long enough break to walk again. The two arrived in the city happiness filling their heart. "We made it!" White said slightly hysterically. They stumbled into the town inn and collapsed into the first empty chairs they saw.

They almost fell asleep at the table, but innkeeper came over and yelled at them before they could. "You need to buy a room. You can't sleep here for free." White panicked for a second, realizing for the first time that she didn't actually have anything_ with_ her. But before her panic could take full force Black had taken his coin purse out of his bag. He quickly paid for two rooms. The innkeeper handed him two keys.

"Thanks Black," White said sadly. "I don't have anything with me…"

"Don't worry about it!" Black replied happily. "The king pays extremely well. I have more than enough money to pay for both of us."

White thanked Black again, touched by his generosity. She really owed him and wanted to think of a way to repay him, but decided she could wait until morning to think about it more. The two of them retired to their respective rooms for the night, and both immediately fell asleep, completely exhausted and finally, _finally_ safe.


	3. Of Fate and Festivals

**Author Note:**

**Thank you to all the reviewers! You're reviews really brighten my day :)**

**Lyra's fortune cards are based off of Tarot cards, but I made up her cards and what they mean.**

**Edit 9/14/14 **

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Of Fate and Festivals<p>

* * *

><p><strong>June 15<strong>**th**

Gypsy Caravan

_With Silver_

Silver had been with the caravan less than a day and he already had developed a strong dislike for most of them, especially Lyra. None of them took anything seriously and Lyra was the worst. She was supposed to be their leader, but Silver had yet to see her do anything even slightly leaderlike. Her optimism was so unbreakable she didn't seem to see reality. This he based on her easy acceptance of him. It should have been obvious he was a thief, and yet she let him join without any resistance.

"Hey Silver!" Lyra said as she walked over to him.

"What?" Silver demanded, trying to hide his irritation and not quite succeeding.

"You want to help out in the next town?" she asked, either ignoring or not noticing his irritated tone. Silver was inclined to think it was the latter.

"Okay," he agreed, though really he wished to do no such thing.

"Great!" Lyra exclaimed. "You're going to be station in my tent as my assistant."

"What about me?" Ruby interrupted.

"You mentioned that you're Pokémon are very well-trained. Do you want to have them perform? If they're as great as you say you could be our centerpiece for this festival"

Ruby's eyes grew wide at the suggestion and he began nodding vigorously. "That would be amazing!" He snatched the two Poké Balls off of his belt and released them with an (in Silver's mind) unnecessary flourish. The two Pokémon posed theatrically, showing off. One was a Poochyena and the other was a Skitty. "This is Nana and Coco," Ruby introduced gesturing at the Poochyena and Skitty respectively. Ruby had them perform a few sample tricks for Lyra who was extremely impressed. Silver was much less so.

"That was amazing!" Lyra gushed. "You're going to be set up on the main stage."

"How long till we get there?" Ruby asked excitement evident in his features.

"We should be to Violet City in under an hour," Lyra informed, pointing to a group of buildings on the horizon.

"So we're in Johto now," Silver stated as he heard the city name. He hadn't realized they were that close to the Johto border.

"Yep!" Lyra replied as she walked off to talk to the other gypsies.

* * *

><p>The caravan reached Violet City in under an hour as Lyra had promised and they had already begun setting up the festival. The main stage was a fixture in the town and the gypsies were erecting their tents around it. Each tent was going to have a different activity, but Silver hadn't paid any attention when they told them what each tent housed. The gypsies worked like a well-oiled machine, even Ruby who according to Lyra hadn't been there that long. Silver had been relegated to the side, the others deciding he would just get in the way.<p>

The tents were soon set up and Lyra walked over to Silver. She shoved an outfit into his arms. "Here Silver. This is your costume," she explained.

"I have to wear a costume?" Silver asked disturbed. His anguish only expounded when he saw _what_ Lyra expected him to wear. It was a shiny silver shirt, matching pants and a huge black and purple striped cape. "I am _not _wearing this," Silver declared emphatically.

"Yes you are!" Lyra exclaimed. Her voice and expression was happy, but Silver saw something else in her eyes. Something that said, if you don't wear this unspeakable things will happen to you. He told himself he only agreed to gain her trust, but truthfully some part of him was actually intimidated by the girl. He'd never admit it though.

Silver found himself in a tent, expected to change into his crazy outfit. He reluctantly changed into it then left the tent, his cape billowing behind him in the wind.

"Awesome!" Ruby exclaimed when he saw Silver. "You're outfit is so cool!"

"It's really not."

"It really is amazing," Lyra complimented. "Good job Ruby!"

"Wait. _You_ designed this?" Silver asked Ruby accusingly.

"Yes! Isn't it great?"

"No," Silver deadpanned. Ruby and Lyra ignored him as they continued to gush about how amazing the outfit was. Silver sighed exasperatedly and tried to tune them out, mostly unsuccessfully.

* * *

><p>Eventually Ruby and Lyra had stopped discussing the outfit and assumed their positions in the festival. Silver and Lyra were the only ones stationed in the tent, and so far they hadn't had a single customer. This was making Silver extremely bored, but Lyra seemed unaffected. She was humming to herself and happily shuffling her fortune telling cards.<p>

"Aren't you bothered that we haven't had _any _customers yet?" Silver finally asked.

"Nope!" Lyra exclaimed. "It just means that Ruby's show is going well."

"It does?"

"Of course! Ruby's show is right outside. Can't you hear the happy crowd?"

"…No. Can you?" Silver replied dubiously.

Lyra giggled and confided, "Nope. But Mystic can."

"Mystic?" At Silver's words a Misdreavus shimmered into view above Lyra's head.

"Mystic warns me when a customer is coming," Lyra explained, gazing fondly at her Pokémon.

The Misdreavus suddenly dissipated again and Lyra sat up straighter, placing her cards in the center of the table. Two people entered a second later.

"Greetings!" Lyra announced. "I am the Mistress of Fortune, Lyra and this is my sidekick Silver."

Silver just stared at them. No one had ever told him what his job entailed.

"Please have a seat," Lyra suggested, giving a sweeping gesture towards the chairs on the other side of her circular table. The couple sat down after glancing at each other nervously. "Ready for a reading?" At the girl's nod Lyra asked, "I'm going to need your names for the reading to be accurate."

"I'm Black, this is White," the man introduced.

"Black and White huh, nice to meet you." Lyra picked up her deck of cards and shuffled them again. Then she flipped one onto the table in front of her. "The Runaways. You were being pursued by something." She flipped another card onto the table. "The Castle, but its inverted. You think that you're safe, but you're not."

"What?" White exclaimed, becoming extremely pale.

Another card landed on the table. "The Pursuit. Whoever is chasing you is drawing closer."

At this proclamation, the couple stood up and sprinted out of the tent.

Lyra flipped another card down and said, "The – Wait. Where did they go?"

"You just told them they were being chased by someone who was gaining on them. Why would they stick around to hear the rest?" Silver replied.

"The next card said that we were going to be friends. See?" Lyra thrust the cards in Silver's face. The card depicted two people hugging and had the words 'The Friends' written in fancy cursive across the bottom.

Lyra turned over the next card. "And this one says that they're going to get married!" Lyra exclaimed, waving The Lovers card in front of Silver's face.

"So I guess you're prediction was wrong," Silver commented.

"Huh? Why do you say that?" Lyra wondered.

"Well, they just left and you'll probably never see them again. So you're not going to be friends."

"We're going to see them again! And they're not the only ones. According to the cards we're going to meet other people too!"

"How are you getting all this from a bunch of cards?" Silver said doubtingly.

"I'm not. Oh next customer!" Unfortunately there was a constant stream of customers after that and Silver didn't get a chance to ask her how she actually _was _getting her information. But he filed the question away, making a not to himself to figure it out at some point.

* * *

><p>Earlier that morning<p>

_With Black_

Black and White had woken up that morning extremely relived. Now that they were in Johto the Unova army had no jurisdiction, so they didn't have to worry about White being captured anymore. In light of this, the two decided to enjoy themselves and went to the gypsy festival that had just finished setting up. The festival was taking place in the center of the city around the city stage. Standing upon this stage was a man who Black assumed was a gypsy. He was directing his Pokémon to do different flips and tricks which had the audience gasping in amazement. Black wasn't as awed, being more into the battling aspect of Pokémon than the performance aspect, but he was impressed all the same.

The two watched the show (which according to a sign was named 'Ruby's Wonderfully Beautiful Pokémon Show') until White had seen enough. While the two watched, so many people had crowded in behind them that getting away from the show proved to be quite difficult. Eventually they got to one of the event tents and they entered not caring what it was.

It ended up the tent was a future telling tent, but the future they were told did not bode well. White became so terrified she sprinted immediately out of the tent headed towards the outskirts of the city. Black didn't want to lose her so he quickly followed after her. They ran past the stage, which was now occupied by a soldier who was arguing with Ruby, and past all the other event tents.

White eventually stopped once she was almost out of the city and waited for Black to catch up. "Sorry," she murmured sadly. "I shouldn't have run off like that."

"It's fine," Black replied. "But you know her reading might not be right. And it might mean what we think it means."

"We think we're safe but we're not. What else could that possibly mean?" White demanded.

"It does sound bad," Black admitted. "But running off blindly won't make it better. We need to make a plan."

White sighed, but finally nodded. "You're the great strategist, what do you suggest we do?" she asked.

Black paused, his face growing thoughtful. "We should make our way to Goldenrod City, the capitol of Johto. Once we're there we can ask King Lance for help."

"A King? Do you really think he'll help us?" White asked doubtfully.

"I'm not sure," Black conceded. "But it's our best bet right now." White didn't have any better ideas, so she agreed with Black and the two set out towards Goldenrod City, leaving Violet City behind them.

* * *

><p>Outskirts of Violet City<p>

_With Yellow_

Yellow wasn't sure where they were going. She didn't think anyone else really did either. Whenever she asked, the only answer she received was "Johto." Never a particular location _in _Johto or even a general area. None of the others seemed to mind though. Red and Sapphire were content to follow Green and Blue was…well, Blue was Blue and Yellow had no idea what she was thinking.

Green however _did _seem to have a destination in mind but he had yet to share it with any of the others and Yellow was actually getting annoyed. Because of this, Yellow was extremely excited when they neared a city. Surely someone would tell her the name of the city and then for the first time since Blue kidnapped her she would know where she was.

"Violet City," Sapphire mused. "We've reached Johto then." She reached into her bag and extracted her helmet which she then placed on her head, obscuring her features once again.

"What's with the helmet?" Blue asked.

"I'm gonna ta pretend ta be a guy again," Sapphire answered.

"Why?" Blue wondered.

"Things're easier when people think you're a guy," Sapphire explained.

Yellow nodded in agreement. "People don't ask as many questions," she added. As she said this she secured her own hat upon her head, covering her long hair.

"Why _were _you pretending to be a boy?" Blue asked Yellow.

Yellow really didn't want to tell Blue about her past. It was something she had never told anyone before and though she was starting to like these people, she had still only known them for a few days. Once she had known them for longer she might become comfortable enough to tell them, but for now she'd prefer to remain silent.

Luckily Red asked Sapphire a question, saving Yellow from responding to Blue. "What's Violet City like?"

Sapphire shrugged. "I've never been there. I had ta memorize the cities when I joined the army. Doesn't mean I know anything about em."

"I've been to Violet City before," Blue informed. "But it was a while ago, and I only saw it at night. I do remember there were a lot of rich people though."

"How did ya know they were rich?" Sapphire wondered.

"Oh. Just intuition!" Blue replied flippantly.

"She's a thief," Green corrected. "It's her business to know who's rich."

"A theif?" Sapphire practically screamed. "We're travelling with a _criminal?"_

"Is taking other people's things really a crime?" Blue asked in defense.

"Yes!" Green and Sapphire replied simultaneously. Blue looked at Yellow entreatingly.

"Stealing is a crime," she replied at the look.

"It's not _stealing, _it's…acquiring," Blue countered.

"It doesn matter what ya call it, it's still a crime!" Sapphire yelled.

"You're so intolerant of people with different lifestyles!" Blue complained.

"Stop," Green commanded. "We don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves." Sapphire and Blue quieted down, noticing they had reached the city and agreeing with Green.

Yellow immediately picked up on the excited atmosphere in the city. "What's going on?" Yellow wondered.

"Let's find out!" Blue suggested happily, skipping towards where the sounds of people seemed the loudest.

* * *

><p><em>With Sapphire<em>

The cheering got more and more intense as the group grew closer to the epicenter, and Sapphire was thankful for the helmet she wore which deafened the ruckus.

"Sure is loud!" Red said, shouting just to be heard.

"What's going on?" Yellow yelled, repeating her question from earlier.

They pushed through the crowd and eventually a stage came into view. On the stage two Pokémon were stationed. A Skitty and a Poochyena. They seemed to be dancing, though Sapphire assumed it must be some sort of fight. She couldn't even begin to imagine why two Pokémon would be dancing.

"Dancing Pokémon, I've seen better," Blue mused. She slipped away from the group and Sapphire noticed Green and Red following her in passing, but she was too busy staring at the Pokémon. Yellow was similarly transfixed.

"Thank you for watching everyone!" the man on stage announced. "I'm Ruby and these are my two amazing Pokémon, Nana and Coco! In our next act Coco jumps through a ring of fire!"

"This is stupid," Sapphire stated and started to turn away from the stage when she was halted by the Ruby's voice.

"What did you say?" Ruby demanded.

"This is stupid! Pokémon are for fighting, not dancing in some stupid show," Sapphire replied.

"Fighting is barbaric!"

"Well dancing is _sissy_!"

It became an all out word war from there. Sapphire jumped on the stage and the two began screaming at each other. For some reason, this seemed to interest people as much as the original show as not many of the audience members left.

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

After Sapphire started the argument with Ruby, Yellow left the show. She hated conflict. As she walked through the festival, one of the signs caught her eye. It read 'The Mistress of Fortune, Lyra!' Having nothing better to do, Yellow walked inside. The interior was completely covered in dark purple and black fabric giving the tent a mysterious aura.

"Welcome!" a cheerful voice exclaimed. Yellow searched through the darkness and as her eyes adjusted the speaker came into view. She was wearing clothes that matched the cloth covering the interior, making her blend into her surroundings. The person standing next to her was…less inconspicuous.

"Silver?" Yellow asked amazed upon seeing the red-head.

"Yellow?" he replied surprised.

"You two know each other?" Lyra wondered. She quickly drew one of her cards. "The cards say that you're friends!"

"We haven't actually, uh…spoken to each other before," Yellow corrected.

"Oh. Well then you _will _be friends!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Ah, Blue is around here somewhere," Yellow told Silver pointing outside.

Silver shrugged and answered, "I'll find her later. I'm travelling with the gypsies right now."

"Sit!" Lyra commanded Yellow. Startled, Yellow obeyed without question.

Lyra started flipping cards onto the table in rapid succession, not bothering to read them as she dealt. After laying ten cards on the table she dropped the reaming cards to the side. Yellow tried to read the cards, but in the dark light the curvy font was indecipherable to her.

Lyra, however, seemed to have no trouble. She peered at the cards and mumbled to herself, "Interesting, interesting."

After a few moments of silence Yellow finally asked, "What is it?"

"I have no idea," Lyra replied. "I can see that you're future is entangled with many others, including Silver's and mine, but I can't actually see your future."

"What does that mean?" Silver inquired.

Lyra looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well… I can see up to a certain point. I know that all of us will be together somewhere, but I don't know what will happen after that." Lyra lifted a finger stopping Silver from interrupting. "The future is always changing – nothing is fixed. The act of simply seeing the future in itself changes the future. Whatever happens after we are all together is so important that it can't be jeopardized, not even by someone seeing it before it happens. So I have no idea what's going to happen; only that it will change the world forever."

Silence followed this statement, none of them wanting or even knowing what to say to that declaration.

* * *

><p>Elsewhere in Violet City<p>

_With Red_

Red was following Green who was following Blue. "You guys really didn't have to come you know," Blue said to Green and Red who had followed her when she left the stage.

"If we leave you alone you'll just steal everything in sight," Green pointed out.

Blue laughed at this. "You two being with me won't stop me! Ah here we are!" Blue raised her arms gesturing at a small wooden building the three had reached.

"Where are we exactly?" Green asked suspiciously. Blue just grinned at him and open the door, not bothering to knock.

"Hey Karen!" Blue yelled once she entered the building.

Red glanced around the building. It was shrouded in darkness, intentionally by the looks of the thick curtains covering the windows.

"Hello Blue…" a voice reverberated through the building, bouncing off the walls in such a way that it was impossible to locate the source. Suddenly someone appeared from out of the darkness in front of the trio. "What brings you here?"

"Weeell," Blue started, reaching for her Ditto bag. "I have some treasure I need to sell." Blue showed the contents to Karen, who's eyes widened as she gazed at the treasure. Red fleetingly wondered how much treasure Blue had actually stolen but figured it didn't matter anymore.

Then the negotiating started. Red couldn't follow the numbers the two were hurling at each other, but they both seemed to be in their element. Red glanced at Green and wondered if he understood, but Green just had the same expression as always, completely unreadable. After a few minutes of intense bargaining, the two girls seemed to settle on a price they were both happy with. Blue dumped the treasure in front of Karen and Karen handed Blue a bulging bag which Red assumed was full of gold. The three left as Karen gathered up all the gems Blue had given her.

"Woo! So much money!" Blue exclaimed as she sorted through the money in her bag. Her Ditto was seated on her shoulder, assuming it's natural pink blob state for the first time since Red and Green had met Blue.

"What's that?" Red asked suddenly as he noticed a commotion on the stage that had previously housed the dancing Pokémon.

* * *

><p><em>With Sapphire<em>

Sapphire and Ruby had been arguing for quite a while now; though Sapphire refused to call him Ruby or even think of him as such. The man that stood before her was nothing like _her _Ruby and she wanted the distinction to be clear in her head.

The two probably would have kept on arguing if they weren't stopped by two men. One was quite old but the second seemed about the same age as Sapphire and Ruby. Both had green hair and looked similar enough Sapphire assumed they were related.

"Excuse me," the older man said. "Could we please make use of this stage?" Sapphire was immediately suspicious. Though nothing outward was wrong, she could sense something evil about him.

Sapphire noticed that Ruby was about to refuse and spoke before he could, "Of course." She nodded politely to the men and dragged Ruby off the stage before he could complain. She didn't care much for this Ruby, but that didn't mean that she wanted something bad to happen to him. And she was sure something would if he picked a fight with the men. She didn't really know why she felt this strongly about that man, but she had learned to trust her instincts about these kinds of things.

Once they were off the stage and to the side a little bit Sapphire released Ruby. "Why did you let them have my stage?" Ruby demanded.

"They're not good people," Sapphire replied. "They woulda done somethin…bad if we argued."

Ruby looked irritated, but he didn't say anything else about it, saying instead, "I wonder what they want."

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

Lyra had felt something happening outside, so she, Silver and Yellow had exited the tent and were now watching two men standing on the stage Ruby and Sapphire were on earlier. "Those are the people after White and Black," Lyra informed. This meant nothing to Yellow, who had no idea who White and Black were, but Silver nodded in understanding.

On the stage the older of the men started speaking, "Greeting citizens of Violet City. My name is Ghetsis. I have much to tell you, but first I must ask, have any of you seen this girl?" He held up a picture of a pretty brown headed girl and Lyra whispered, "White…"

Although Lyra and Silver kept their knowledge of the girl a secret, others did not. One man spoke up, "Yeah! I've seen that girl. She stayed at my inn for the night."

"Do you know where she went?" Ghetsis demanded.

"No," the innkeeper replied. "She didn't tell me where she was headed." Yellow was grateful, she may not know White, but based on what Lyra had said it would be bad if the green haired man found her.

"Has anyone else seen her?" Ghetsis asked. This query was met with silence and Ghetsis sighed in disappointment, but quickly covered it up and began his speech.

"I am a member of Team Plasma. We are a group committed to helping Pokémon. Pokémon don't deserve to be locked inside little balls all day! They should be free!" The man continued on like this for a while and though what he was saying seemed kind, Yellow felt no kindness behind his words. She loved Pokémon more than anyone and she knew that this man did not mean them any kindness. Whatever reason he had for convincing people to let their Pokémon go was not selfless, of this she was sure.

"That man is evil," Lyra commented, her voice shaking slightly.

"What about the kid?" Silver wondered. "He hasn't said a word or even moved this whole time."

"His path isn't set yet," Lyra replied. "He could go either way."

"How do you do that?" Yellow asked. Lyra looked at her questioningly. "See people's fates."

Lyra shrugged and replied flippantly, "I have a gift." She didn't say any more on the matter and Yellow didn't push her. She knew there was more too it though.

"I need to get back to the others," Yellow told Lyra. "Are you coming?" She asked Silver.

Silver shook his head and replied, "No. I'm staying with the gypsies for a while. Tell Blue I'll find her later." Yellow nodded and started weaving her way through the crowd trying to find the others.

The first one she ran into was Sapphire, who was still in the company of Ruby.

"Yellow!" Sapphire greeted. "That guy was super creepy."

"They took over my stage!" Ruby said indignantly.

"Hey!" Yellow turned at the voice and saw Blue making her way towards them, tailed by Red and Green.

As they waited for the three to reach them, Yellow heard Lyra's voice ring out over the dinn, "Pack up everyone! We're leaving!"

"That's my cue to go," Ruby said walking off with his two Pokémon following him.

"Sissy boy," Sapphire spat after him.

"Um…Sapphire," Yellow began.

"What?"

"Well, that guy. His name was Ruby right?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't is possible that he's…you know, the Ruby from your past?" Yellow suggested.

"No way!" Sapphire denied. "_My _Ruby was strong and brave! Not a pathetic sissy like _that _guy."

Yellow was thankful Blue had finally reached them or Sapphire might have done something violent.

"Hey guys!" Blue greeted again. "Let's get out of here!"

"_I'm _the leader," Green reprimanded. "We should get more supplies before we leave. The things Red packed aren't going to last long; he only packed for two." Green redirected the group towards the stores, Blue following sulkily.

"Ah, Blue! I saw Silver," Yellow told her. "He said that he's staying with the gypsies now and he'll find you later."

Blue nodded in understanding. "I thought that was his plan," she replied. Then she ran in front of Green and yelled, "Let's hit the shops!"

Green groaned in irritation and attempted to ignore her. The five made their way to the stores and began shopping. This took them a while and by the time they were done it was already late, so they spent the night at the Violet City inn. Yellow had never liked inns, but she saw them in a whole new light now that she had been spending the night on the road for the past few days. This time she found the inn quite comfortable and was soon asleep, wondering what the next day would bring.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

**So no Gold and his group aren't in this chapter, but they're going to be the main focus next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)**


	4. Of Weakness and Wally

**Author Note:**

**Sorry this is so late and a bit short. I've been really busy with school _and _I caught a cold. But I'm better now and after the test on Monday school should be a bit less frantic, so hopefully the next update won't take as long.**

**Thanks for everyone who reviewed, favorited, or alerted :)**

**I needed a last name for Wally and to my knowledge he doesn't have an official one, so I used his Japanese name, Mitsuru, as his last name.**

_italics _are thoughts

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Of Weakness and Wally<p>

* * *

><p><em>With Gold<em>

Gold had hoped to show off his amazing leadership ability by leading Crystal and now the new three, but instead Lady Berlitz had taken complete control of the group. Gold blamed it entirely on her position. Lady Berlitz rode comfortably (and fashionably) upon her Ponyta while he and the other three had to walk. If _he _had a Ponyta he would surely be leader. That's what he told himself anyway.

She declared they were going to the capitol so that she could meet King Lance so of course that's what they where they were going. They were almost to Mahogany Town now and Gold still hadn't come up with a brilliant way to take the leadership of the group back yet.

Even more annoying was that Lady Berlitz had monopolized Crystal's attention. She was completely ignoring him! Sulkily, Gold eavesdropped on their conversation deciding it was the second best thing to actually talking to Crystal. "Gold brought me out here before I had time to pack," Crystal was saying. "I didn't even have time to grab my Pokémon."

This sparked something in Gold's memory. His hand drifted down to his belt where four Poké Balls were secured. Two were his, his Aipom and Poliwag, but the other two were Crystal's.

"Super serious gal!" Gold exclaimed trying to get Crystal's attention.

"What Gold?" she asked, her voice instantly turning irritated.

"Catch!" As he said this Gold unclipped Crystal's Pokémon from his belt and hurled them at her. Crystal kicked the Poké Balls as they approached sending them flying. "What did you do that for?" Gold demanded.

"It's a reflex! I see Poké Balls flying at me and I kick them!" Crystal defended. Luckily she had been surprised and hadn't been able to use her full strength. If she had, they would have ended up much further away than they did, and as it was they were quite a distance away from the group. Fortunately, the impact with the ground released the two Pokémon held inside so they were able to return to the group themselves, saving Crystal from a long and tedious search through the grass. The two Pokémon that had been released were a Natu and an Arcanine, but Gold knew them best as Natee and Arckiee.

"Why did you wait _two days_ to tell me you brought two of my Pokémon?" Crystal asked Gold angrily as she greeted her Pokémon.

"I forgot," Gold answered.

"You forgot."

"Yep!"

"I believe that is Lord Mitsuru's estate," Lady Berlitz commented, interrupting the argument. This was very lucky for Gold, because if Crystal had continued unchecked she likely would have punished him, either having Arckiee set him on fire or just giving him a long, scolding lecture.

"Who's Lord Mitsuru?" Gold wondered aloud as he took in the sight that Lady Berlitz had pointed out. The path in front of them was mostly just a dirt road surrounded by grass and whatever hardy plants were able to make it on their own. The estate Lady Berlitz pointed out was in stark contrast to the rather barren road. Not much of the estate itself could be seen over the wall, just a few towers, but even with the wall Gold could see some of the garden. Tree tops peeked over the edge of the tower and creeping vines of ivy lived on the wall itself.

Crystal huffed in annoyance, but answered Gold's question anyway. "He's an ambassador from Hoenn."

"We should visit him," Lady Berlitz declared.

"What? Why?" Gold wondered.

"I am trying to learn more about the world. Speaking to an ambassador would be very beneficial."

Dia nodded in agreement, almost puppy-like in his adoration of the Lady Berlitz. Gold opened his mouth to disagree (after all, guard or not Dia didn't look very threatening) but Pearl seemed to sense this and glared at him. Gold then realized it was three versus one. Crystal might even join their side then it would be four versus him. So instead of disagreeing, he said, "Yeah! Let's visit Lord Mitsu-whatever."

"Mitsuru," Crystal corrected under her breath.

Lord Mitsuru's Estate

* * *

><p><em>With Crystal<em>

Lord Mitsuru's Estate was gorgeous, but Crystal couldn't enjoy it to its full extent because there was something bothering her. She was smart enough to know that people like her and even Gold wouldn't be allowed into an important ambassador's residence easily. After all she was simply a maid and Gold was the adopted son of a minor lord, nothing all that impressive. Especially not to someone of Lord Mitsuru's status. But when they walked up to the guards, Lady Berlitz had introduced herself and the doors were quite suddenly open to them, no questions asked. Now Crystal was puzzling over who Lady Berlitz could possibly be to get that kind of response. So far she'd come up with nothing.

The group was led through the courtyard and into the house itself towards a meeting with the Lord Mitsuru. Crystal didn't pay attention to her surroundings, too caught up in her musings. It wasn't until they had arrived at Lord Mitsuru's great hall that Crystal realized Gold had disappeared. The guard entered the room ahead of them to announce their presence and Crystal looked around.

"Where did Gold go?" Crystal asked.

Pearl looked around confused. "I have no idea…" he replied. The other two replied similarly.

"I'm going to go look for him," Crystal said.

The guard came back as Crystal was walking away. "Where is she going?" he asked, his tone declaring he did _not _approve of guests wandering around unescorted.

"She is looking for another of our party," Lady Berlitz told the guard. The guard immediately backed down as she spoke, allowing Crystal to wander freely and making her wonder once again what was so special about Lady Berlitz.

Crystal took advantage of her unaccompanied state and took her time looking for Gold. The estate was truly amazing, every window giving a splendid view of the gardens that surrounded the main building. There were more types of flowers and plants then Crystal could count, and she couldn't imagine how many people must be needed to keep it in as good shape as it was. As she was gazing out one of the windows, she heard voices originating from the hallway behind her. She reluctantly turned her back on the gorgeous view and went to investigate.

The conversation eventually became more distinct and she recognized Gold's voice along with another she didn't know. She found the room they were in and, as the door was open, walked straight in. Gold was standing near the doorway talking with a green haired boy who was seated in a plush chair.

The room was well ventilated, having more windows than the other rooms she had seen and Crystal noted several different vials sitting upon the desk. From this and the pale complexion of the boy, Crystal deduced that he had some sort of disease.

They boy's eyes focused on Crystal and he greeted, "Hello."

Gold spun around and said, "Hey Crystal!"

"Gold, are you bothering him?" I accused.

"He isn't," the boy assured. "I don't get many visitors, having someone new to talk to is a nice change. My name is Wally Mitsuru."

"It's very nice to meet you," I said, my manners automatically kicking in. "I'm Crystal."

Wally smiled and mused, "Two new people in one day. Can you tell me about the places you've seen?" He looked incredibly excited. "I've always wanted to travel. I'd love to hear about the places you've been."

"Why don't you travel?" Gold asked tactlessly.

Crystal smacked his arm and reprimanded, "Gold!"

"What?" he whined, rubbing the injured section of arm which was developing a red, hand-shaped mark.

"I have a disease," Wally explained. "But I guess you noticed that." He directed the last at Crystal.

"Sorry," Crystal said apologetically.

Wally smiled and replied, "Its fine. I've been like this all my life, I'm used to it. I'm not even sure what it _is. _I've been to all the best doctors and all they agree on is that there's something wrong with my lungs. I'm mostly the reason my family moved here, the fresh air helps my lungs."

Gold scoffed. "So you're going to let your disease control your life?" he demanded. "You should go outside! See the world! Hey, you could come with us!"

"Gold!" Crystal scolded. "Don't encourage dangerous behavior. If he leaves his sickness will get worse!"

"No," Wally said, his weak voice suddenly full of resolve. "Gold's right. I shouldn't stay here my whole life. I should go out and see the world! See the places I've always wanted to. Will you really take me?"

His face had lit up and he looked so excited and so painfully hopeful, that Crystal found herself saying yes before she had even realized she opened her mouth.

"Thank you!" Wally said, abruptly standing. "I should pack!" He started scurrying around his room and putting things into a brown knapsack. "I'll meet you guys outside."

"We'll leave you to pack then," Crystal said. She dragged Gold out with her and continued back down the hallway towards the room where she had left Lady Berlitz earlier. _What have I just done? _She wondered to herself as she dragged Gold down the hallway. _Did I just agree to help an ambassador's son run away from home? A _sick _ambassador's son? _Judging by the grin on Gold's face, Crystal deduced that, yes. That's _exactly _what had happened. She let out a sigh but continued on. She wasn't heartless, and she would have had to be to say no to Wally when he looked at her like that.

* * *

><p><em>With Platina<em>

"It's so very nice to meet you Lady Berlitz," Lord Mitsuru groveled.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well," Platina replied, slightly puzzled at his over exuberant greeting. She decided to ignore it, figuring it must be the way ambassadors normally talk.

"What brings you to Johto?" Lord Mitsuru asked.

"I am on my coming of age journey. It's the journey every Berlitz takes to learn more about the rest of the world. I am sure a distinguished ambassador such as yourself will be able to teach me quite a lot about the world."

Lord Mitsuru laughed jovially. "I can teach you facts, but to truly learn about the world you have to travel through it. Not just talking to the nobles, but visiting with the common folk as well."

"Commoners?" Platina repeated.

"Yes of course. You need to be in touch with all the people, not just nobles. This will be especially important in your position."

Platina was a bit confused by this last comment. She was part of an important family to be sure, but not important enough that she needed to know all the peoples' needs. However, her face showed no sign of her interior confusion, her upbringing allowing her to keep an impassive expression at all times. Showing confusion shows weakness, and you should never show weakness. Of course a drawback to this was that she had a much more difficult time finding things out. "Yes of course," Platina replied, pretending she knew exactly what he was talking about and secretly hoping he would clarify.

"It's still mostly a secret isn't it? I guess that's mostly for your protection."

_My protection? _Platina wondered. _What is he talking about? _Instead of voicing these thoughts, she said noncommittally, "I suppose."

"Hey guys!" Gold announced as he walked into the room, the doors making loud thudding noises as they slammed against the wall after he threw them open. Crystal followed him, shaking her head disapprovingly.

Lord Mitsuru looked a bit taken aback, but he regained his composure quickly. "Hello, I don't believe we've met," he greeted.

"Gold Elm!" Gold introduced. "And this is Crystal."

Crystal curtseyed politely.

Platina glanced out the window and saw the sun lowering in the sky. "It has been very nice to see you Lord Mitsuru," she said politely. "But I'm afraid we must be on our way if we are to get to the Mahogany Inn by nightfall."

"Of course," Lord Mitsuru replied. "It was a pleasure to meet you Lady Berlitz." The group was led outside by the same guard who had shown them in and they were soon back outside. After they had walked a little away from the estate, Gold started searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Pearl asked.

"Wally. He's supposed to meet us out here," Crystal explained.

"Wally?" Dia wondered. "Who's that?"

"Lord Mitsuru's son," Platina replied.

"He wants to see the world!" Gold exclaimed.

"So _naturally_ Gold convinced him to come with us," Crystal added sarcastically.

"Gold! Crystal!" a weak voice called. Wally walked quickly towards them, now wearing clothes more travel friendly and carrying a large bag.

"Wally! You made it!" Gold exclaimed happily.

Introductions were exchanged and he was accepted into the group. Platina didn't have a problem with him coming, after all she shared his desire to see the world, so why should she stop him? Pearl and Dia followed her lead and so Wally officially became part of the group.

* * *

><p><em>With White <em>

White and Black walked quickly and quietly along the rough, relatively untraveled road. There were many other paths they could have taken to the capitol, each one busier than the one they were on. But that was precisely why they had picked that particular path. After the frightening words of the fortune teller they had decided it was best not to draw attention to themselves. Unfortunately, a boy and girl travelling along the road _was _suspicious, so they were hoping to avoid attention simply by not being seen.

White was a nervous wreck. She wanted to run all the way to Goldenrod, but she knew that wasn't possible for someone in peak physical condition, much less for her who never really worked out as much as she should.

Their walk was interrupted and White's fears were validated in the same instant. A loud banging sound came from behind White and Black. They both whirled around and, upon seeing the source, dove off the path. A shadowy black ball slammed into the ground where they had just been, kicking up a large pile of dust and debris which.

"What was that?" White shrieked.

"Cofagrigus!" Black shouted, pointing at a coffin-shaped Pokémon floating above the road which became visible to White as the dust cleared. Black reached for one of his Poké Balls and released the Pokémon inside. "White, get out of here!" he yelled as Brav appeared.

"But –"

"Just go!"

White didn't question him again and began sprinting down the road. The sounds of Black and the Pokémon fighting followed her for awhile, but gradually they faded and she was unable to hear anything anymore. For a fleeting moment, she thought she was safe. Then she saw the green-haired man. White tried to run back the way she came, but a Purrloin blocked her path. She turned back to the man and saw a Butterfree next to him. The same one as last time no doubt.

"What do you want with me?" White cried defeated.

The man was silent for a few moments then replied, "You weren't meant to be there."

White assume he meant the bakery, but she was confused by his statement. "I work there! Of course I was there."

So quietly White half believed she imagined it, the man whispered, "I'm sorry." Then in a much louder and authoritative voice he commanded, "Butterfree, Sleep Powder!"

White tightly shut her eyes as she waited for the familiar feeling of drowsiness to take her, but to her surprise, something preempted the feeling. "Protect!" a different voice had yelled. White's eyes snapped open and she beheld a Grovyle standing in front of her protectively, its glowing barrier preventing the sleep inducing powder from reaching her.

She turned towards the owner of the voice and was surprised by how short he was. If it weren't for his ridiculously tall hair, White would have been as tall as he was standing while she was sitting down.

The green-haired man looked irritated at the interruption of his plan and signaled his Butterfree behind him. "Purrloin, come here," he commanded. The purple Pokémon, which was still behind White, leapt over her and landed in front of its master.

"Fury Swipes!" the green-haired man commanded.

"Dodge it!" White's savior told his Grovyle. The Purrloin charged and just barely missed the Grovyle, which sent the cat-Pokémon on a path straight towards White. White realized this in time to roll to the side giving her a perfect view of the Purrloin's claws creating large gouges in the ground White had been only a moment before. This made her doubt the virtue of her savior since she would have let the Purrloin hit her with no warning.

The short kid demanded a counter attack and then the battle got so intense White stopped trying to follow. Instead, she slid backwards and stood up slowly, trying not to draw attention to herself. Once she was fully upright, she turned the other way and began sprinting only to run right into someone, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Ow…White?" White glanced up and found with great relief that the person was Black. She felt so completely weak with relief, she threw her arms around him and hugged him.

"What are you two doing?" asked the boy from earlier. At this question, White jumped off of Black, her face heating up embarrassedly. She glanced around trying to shake off her nervousness, but something confused her.

"Where'd the guy go?" White wondered. The space the man and his two Pokémon had been occupying was empty. White wasn't able to see him in the distance either. It was as if he had simply disappeared.

"The coward ran off," the boy explained. "He teleported away."

"The man I was fighting randomly left too," Black added. Brav, who was hovering above Black's head, nodded in agreement.

White pondered this, but realized if _Black _didn't know why they left than there was no way that she would. So she decided to focus on a mystery that she _could _get the answer to. "Who exactly _are _you?" White asked the boy.

"Emerald. Emerald Elm," the boy replied.

"Elm," Black repeated surprised. "You're one of Lord Elm's adopted sons. I'm Black and this is White," he added as an afterthought.

The three stood awkwardly for a few moments, unsure of what to do next when White suddenly exclaimed, "BLACK! EMERALD!" The two guys exclaimed in pain and covered their ears. "Please teach me how to battle," White finished more quietly.

"What?" Black asked, a bit too loudly. "Beach you now to rattle?"

"No she said peach her cow to saddle," Emerald said, his voice at the same volume as Black's.

"TEACH ME HOW TO BATTLE!" White screamed.

The two flinched again, the words damaging their ears even more, but they understood this time. "Oooh, teach you how to battle," the two repeated in unison.

"But White, you don't even have a Pokémon, do you?" Black asked.

"…No," White admitted. "But there are Pokémon around here. I can just catch one of those, right?"

"HA!" Emerald randomly said. White and Black glanced at him weirdly.

"What?" Black asked.

"My adventure is going to be so much better than Gold and Crystal's!" he explained. "You two are going to be more fun to travel with anyway!"

White and Black stared at him, expecting some sort of explanation, but Emerald wasn't forthcoming. White shrugged it off and figured if it was really important she'd find out eventually. As it was she didn't want to scare him off, having another battler around would come in handy if the past few days were anything to go by. She just couldn't get the green-haired man's words out of her head. When he showed up at her bakery it certainly seemed like her was expecting her to be there. And that apology, if he didn't want to hurt her then why was he doing this? White threw off her thoughts again and focused on her new goal. She needed to learn to protect herself. Answers could come later.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**See? Emerald isn't dead! Hahaha...Yeah. Anyway next chapter will be back to focusing on Green and his group. Hopefully it will be longer.**

**I love reviews :)**


	5. Of Laws and Lyra

**I tried to post this last night, but it doesn't seem to have ever showed up. I deleted and reposted it, maybe it will work this time...**

**Author Note:**

**I hope you all had a nice Easter :) I did. And sorry this took a long time. Thank you to all the people who reviewed, favorited and alerted!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Of Laws and Lyra<p>

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

_This is taking too long, _Silver thought angrily. Sure, it had only been a few days and Silver wasn't fool enough to expect that they would let him see their treasure that quickly, but so far his plan was meeting with zero success. Process of elimination was a big part of his original plan, but the gypsies hadn't let him get even a _glimpse_ in any of the wagons. The gypsies had about ten wagons and Silver knew that one held the treasure. Unfortunately the wagons (sans treasure wagon) held sleeping gypsies, so searching each wagon wasn't a plan Silver wanted to resort to. However, he was worried about Blue, alone with that irritating prince. So Silver walked over to one of the wagons, and began his search trying to be as quiet as possible.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra <em>

Lyra was rather uncomfortable that night, but she wasn't going to move. She was used to it anyway. Ever since Silver had arrived she had taken to sleeping in this particular wagon. She shifted slightly, the pile of coins under her clinking as the coins were pushed by her body. It was a full moon that night and the silvery light spilled around the canvas covering of the wagon creating a beautiful sparkling effect on the gold and gems stored in the wagon.

Then the thing Lyra had been waiting for finally happened. The canvas was pushed aside and a dark shape appeared. It wasn't lit well enough to make out who it was, but Lyra already knew. It was Silver. Lyra wasn't an idiot, despite what others might think.

The moment Lyra had met Silver she knew what he really wanted. After all, she could see the future. How could she not know what he had come for? She had hoped that maybe after being with the gypsies for a while he would have a change of heart, but it hadn't worked.

Silver climbed into the wagon and Lyra decided to make herself known. "Hey Silver," she said coolly.

Lyra saw Silver's whole body jerk in surprise. "Lyra?" he asked.

Lyra gave a humorless laugh and replied, "Yeah. It's me. I know what you're here for. But I also know that you're not a bad person. If you leave now, I'll pretend like this never happened. If you don't I'll have to fight you."

Silver couldn't stop a laugh from escaping at the last remark. "You think you could beat me?"

With a smirk Lyra replied, "I know I could."

Silver slowly reached down and picked up a single gold coin. Lyra got her answer.

"Bubblebeam!" Lyra commanded, her Marill, Bubbles, jolting awake and sending a large stream of bubbles towards Silver.

"Sneasel, Scratch! Pop the bubbles!" Silver commanded sending his Sneasel out in front of him. Sneasel's claws flashed popping the majority of the bubbles, but enough got through to push Silver and his Sneasel out of the wagon. Lyra and Bubbles jumped out after them.

"Whirlpool!" Lyra's Marill released a stream of water which quickly spiraled into a vortex.

Silver quickly switched Pokémon. "Murkrow, Fly!" The small crow-Pokémon shot into the sky, carrying Silver with it. The two got high enough to avoid the bulk of the whirlpool but they were still soaked.

Evidently having had enough of defense, Silver attacked before Lyra could give Bubbles another command. He dropped down giving his Murkrow freedom of movement and yelled, "Aerial Ace!" The Murkrow shot forward and slashed Bubbles with its wings.

Bubbles staggered backwards, but Lyra seemed unfazed. "Tackle." Bubbles propelled herself forwards and slammed into Murkrow before Silver could bark out a defensive move.

"Aerial Ace," Silver told his Murkrow again. The bird shook itself off and complied, slamming into Bubbles again. Bubbles was hit hard and appeared dizzy, swaying as it stood back up. Silver decided to press his advantage and commanded his Murkrow, "Wing Attack!" Bubbles was hit again, but this time it didn't stand back up.

Silver smirked and said, "If that's all you've got I'm going to win easy."

"I haven't even gotten started yet," Lyra replied. She returned Bubbles and reached for her secret weapon. "Go Mystic." Lyra's Misdreavus appeared in a flash of red light. "Hidden Power."

A purple aura formed around Mystic, expanding and then slamming into Silver and his Murkrow, throwing them all the way across the camp. They remained motionless on the other side, so Lyra walked over to check on them. "Looks like you knocked them out," Lyra commented to Mystic. Mystic nodded and smiled at her master. "We sure showed him."

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

The sun shone brightly in Silver's face, rousing him from his less than restful night. He lay where he had been defeated the night before. Blinking, he sat up and saw that the others were only just waking up as well. This confused him as he was sure they would all be gone by the time he woke up. He ran his hands through his hair, finding it was full of dried mud.

"Good morning!" Lyra chirped as she bounced past him, all the seriousness from the night before gone from her expression. Silver would have believed it was all a dream if it weren't for the mud and the aches in his back. He stumbled over to his Murkrow and returned the Pokémon to its Poké Ball. Silver glanced around, expecting the gypsies to all hate him, but they were all acting normal. Not sure what else to do, Silver set off with the caravan like normal (except that he washed his hair first).

* * *

><p>After walking for about an hour the caravan arrived in front of a city. Silver thought through his mental map of Johto and determined they must be in front of Cherrygrove City.<p>

"Are we putting on another festival here?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"That's the plan," Lyra replied. Silver glanced at them during their conversation and noted that Lyra's Marill was in its normal place at Lyra's side, but it flinched when he glanced at it.

"Halt!" a voice yelled, stopping the gypsies. Silver looked up to see a soldier standing in the main gate to the city, blocking their entry.

"We're the Fortune Gypsies," Lyra explained. "We're here to put on a festival."

"We're not accepting visitors. Go away," the soldier denied.

"But gypsies are allowed in all cities," Lyra said confused.

"Not anymore. King Lance has decreed that no large groups – not even gypsies – are allowed in without proper certification."

"Certification? What are you talking about?"

"You have to get certified by the Johto council."

"This is ridiculous," Lyra complained.

"I can let a few of you in," the soldier finally conceded. "But the rest of you have to stay outside the walls."

Lyra sighed heavily, then gestured to a few of the other gypsies. "Set up outside the city. I'll have a talk with the mayor and I'm taking Ruby and Silver into the city with me. We'll be back in a few hours."

Silver jerked at the mention of his name. Why would he want _him _in the city with her?

He got his answer after he, Lyra and Ruby walked into the city. While Ruby was distracted looking at different fabrics Silver asked Lyra, "Why did you bring me here?"

"To keep an eye on you of course. You didn't think I was going to leave you alone with the treasure did you?"

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

"Cherrygrove City. What are we doing here?" Blue asked. "Despite the walls and the large buildings and stuck up people, there really isn't much to steal here."

"It's not like we asked you to come with us," Green pointed out. "I don't even know why you're still travelling with us."

"Just because I'm a thief doesn't mean I'm not selfless," Blue began.

"It doesn't?" Sapphire muttered.

"I simply want to help reunite a prince with his kidnapped family," Blue finished, her voice taking on a theatrical tone.

"What a nice person…" Red commented. This commented was followed by odd looks from the others trying to judge his sincerity.

After a few moments, Blue decided to assume he _did _mean his statement and grinned widely. "Yes I _am _a nice person!"

Green muttered something that Blue assumed was derogatory, but she couldn't pick out the actual words. The four wandered through the city when Blue caught sight of some familiar red hair. "Hey Silver!" Blue exclaimed. She ran over to him and hugged him from behind.

"Blue?" Silver choked out, his voice constricted by Blue's arms. She let go of him after a few seconds and grinned at him.

"How've ya been?"

"Fine," he replied. "I'm just here with…" He looked around confused. "Where did they go? I was just with Lyra and Ruby."

"Did ya say Ruby?" Sapphire asked, appearing suddenly in front of the two.

"Yes…" Silver replied, seeming a bit disturbed.

Sapphire disappeared again muttering about "that stupid sissy."

* * *

><p><em>With Ruby<em>

"Are we really just going to ditch him?" Ruby asked uncertainly. He glanced backwards at the red-headed male currently being glomped by a brown-haired girl.

"Just teaching him that we gypsies won't be messed with," Lyra replied happily. "Besides we're going to see him again."

"How do you know that?"

"See?" Lyra lifted up three cards from her fortune telling deck. "These three cards have been stuck together every time I do a reading."

"The Thief, the Future and the Beauty," Ruby read aloud. "Well I'm obviously the Beauty."

"Yep," Lyra answered with a laugh. "I'm the Future and Silver's the thief."

"But isn't the evidence a bit circumstantial?" Ruby doubted.

Lyra looked thoughtful for a moment then led Ruby into a secluded corner of the market. She then held up her entire card deck and threw the cards into the air. The wind blew the cards every which way, but somehow a stack of about ten cards landed in a pile. "See?" Lyra asked. "These sixteen cards always end up together when I do a reading for the future."

Ruby looked at the pile and noticed that the Thief, Future and Beauty cards were sitting prominently on top of the pile. "So each of these cards represents a person that we're going to meet later?"

"Yep. Well, one of them actually represents two," Lyra picked up one of the cards and showed it to Ruby.

"The Runaways," he read.

"This card is both Black and White."

Ruby was about to ask why those two were in the same card, when an armored hand reached down and picked up one of the cards. "Are these cards?" the person asked.

Lyra glanced at the card the knight held and grinned. Ruby read the card and read 'The Warrior.' His eyes were then drawn up to the knight's face and horror filled him. "No," he said.

"You're the Warrior!" Lyra exclaimed to the knight, Ruby now knew to be Sapphire.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," Ruby said, repeating the word over and over again.

"Is the sissy broken?" Sapphire wondered.

"Her fate is _not _tied to ours!" Ruby finally finished.

"What's he talkin' about?"

"These cards," Lyra began, gesturing at the small pile at Sapphire's feet. "Are the way I read people's fate. This pile represents seventeen people, including the three of us, whose fates are entwined."

Sapphire blinked at her and said, "…Huh?"

"It means we're going to see a lot of each other!" Lyra enthused.

Sapphire and Ruby looked at each other in horror, then simultaneously screamed, "NOOOOOOO!"

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

"What was that?" Yellow asked.

"Sounded like someone screaming," Red theorized.

"Who cares?" Green replied.

"It sounded like two people screaming in utter horror," Yellow said nervously.

"Maybe I should check it out," Blue suggested with a devilish grin on her face. "I do love messing with people." With these words she slipped off into the crowd.

"Should we go after her?" Yellow wondered.

"Just leave her," Green replied. "We can't seem to get rid of her anyway."

Silver glared at Green, but Green either ignored it or simply didn't care. Yellow wasn't sure which.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Silver asked, crossing his arms and staring at them all.

"Getting supplies so we don't have to stop again before we get to Goldenrod," Green replied.

"We're headed to Goldenrod?" Yellow said startled. "The capital?"

"If my family was kidnapped in Johto there's a good chance King Lance has heard something about it," Green elaborated.

"That makes sense," Red mused, sounding a bit surprised.

"What did you think we were doing?" Green wondered.

"I thought we were wandering aimlessly until we miraculously found them," Red immediately answered.

Green gave him a disgusted look and walked off towards the food stalls. Yellow found herself following him with Red and Silver.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

Blue hurried through the crowd, intent on finding the owners of the horrified screams. Her instincts served her well and she soon found the owners, Sapphire and Ruby. _This is too perfect,_ Blue thought smugly. She quickly ran up to them and grabbed both of them, forcing the two into a group hug.

"Ack! Blue?" Sapphire protested. "What are you doing?" Sapphire tried to angle herself in a way that she wasn't in contact with Ruby, but Blue pushed them back together.

A delighted giggle surprised Blue into releasing her captives. Blue spun around and saw a girl she immediately identified as a gypsy. "You're The Matchmaker!" the gypsy announced.

"The what now?" The gypsy held up a card and handed it to Blue. Blue examined the card and saw that it did indeed say 'The Matchmaker' on it.

"It means our fates are connected. My name's Lyra by the way."

"Oh you're Lyra! I'm Blue, Silver's friend."

"Nice to meet you. We actually just ditched Silver."

"I appreciate your honesty. How does a card tell you our fates?"

"Magic," Lyra replied with a wink.

"Riiiight," Blue said skeptically.

"Oo!" Lyra suddenly exclaimed, running off without bothering to collect her cards. Blue thought briefly about stealing them, but a Misdreavus appeared, gathered all the cards (including the one still in Blue's hand) and disappeared again. Ruby had followed Lyra and Blue decided to follow suit. She hated not knowing things, and she didn't know what Lyra had seen. Sapphire set off to find Green, but only walked a few steps before she realized she had no idea where they were. Left with the option of following Blue or wandering by herself, she ran after Blue.

Blue and Sapphire found Lyra and Ruby talking to an elderly man. She glanced at them as they approached and quickly introduced them, "Blue, Sapphire, this is the mayor."

Blue studied the man and quickly dismissed him as a boring old man.

"Mister Mayor," Lyra began. "Why won't you let my gypsy tribe into the city?"

"Oh, you must be the leader of the Fortune Gypsies," the old man assumed. "I would love to welcome you into the city, I've always loved gypsy festivals, but I don't have a choice. King Lance has made a law and I can't break that."

"But –" Lyra complained, but the mayor interrupted her.

"I'm very sorry, but I won't break the law for you." The man walked off leaving an irritated Lyra behind.

"Fine then," Lyra huffed. "Ruby! We're going to Goldenrod. We're taking this all the way to the top."

"I guess we'll see you later then," Blue said. She gestured at Sapphire to follow her, took a few steps then suddenly stopped. "Uh…Where _are _the others?"

"Oh, you're friends left a while ago," Lyra informed.

"WHAT?" Blue and Sapphire screamed simultaneously.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Blue demanded.

"Why didn't they wait for us?" Sapphire asked.

"Green waits for no one," Blue said darkly.

"What do we do now?" Sapphire demanded angrily.

Lyra smiled and opened her mouth, but was preempted by Ruby saying, "No."

"Come with us!" Lyra continued anyway.

"Seriously?" Blue said. "Didn't Silver just try to steal from you?"

"Yeah, but since he failed you should know better than to try. And if you do I'll just beat you up too."

"_You _beat up _Silver?_" Blue doubted. Lyra just grinned mischievously and walked off towards the temporary gypsy camp. Blue thought for a moment, then decided following the girl was her best chance at finding Green. "Come on Sapph," Blue said. "Let's go be gypsies!"

"I hate gypsies," Sapphire grumbled, but she followed Blue without further complaint.

* * *

><p>Outside of Cherrygrove City<p>

_With Silver_

"I can't believe you ditched Blue," Silver growled.

"And Sapphire," Yellow added.

"You didn't have to come with us," Green pointed out.

"Blue would want me to go with you in her place," Silver said.

"I thought you were travelling with the gypsies," Yellow added.

"That didn't work out," Silver explained shortly. He didn't feel like sharing and the others eventually got the point.

"We're not stopping at any more cities before Goldenrod," Green announced. "The faster we get there the more likely we are to find my family."

"Yeah! To Goldenrod!" Red shouted.

* * *

><p>On the Road to Goldenrod<p>

_With White_

The tension was palpable. Every nerve on White's body was vibrating in anticipation. "Now throw!" Black yelled suddenly.

Immediately White launched the Poké Ball. The Deerling White was facing _was _incapacitated, but not in the way White wanted. The Deerling had started laughing so hard it fell over, because instead of throwing the ball at the Deerling, White had somehow managed to launch the ball backwards.

Emerald stared with a condescending expression on his face, while Black tried to keep his face expressionless in respect for White's emotions. Embarrassment was the first thing White felt, followed by burning anger. _How could I have thrown it backwards? _White asked herself angrily. She picked up another Poké Ball and ran over to the guffawing Deerling, smacking it on the head with the ball. The Pokémon was sucked into the ball and White was almost certain she could still hear the Pokémon laughing at her.

There was a ding and Emerald said, "Really? Did you seriously catch that Deerling by making it laugh so hard it couldn't move?"

"The how doesn't matter!" White proclaimed. "The point is I successfully caught my first Pokémon!"

Neither boy said anything in response to this comment, but it was clear they both had issues it. White was too ecstatic to notice.

"What should I call her? Marie? Jennifer? No…Jessica! I'm calling her Jessica!" White announced proudly. "Come on guys! I've got a Pokémon! I'm unstoppable!"

Emerald scoffed, "Yeah, unstoppable."

"Well it's a start anyway," Black said encouragingly. "We can continue our training once we get to Goldenrod City."

"Are we close?" White asked.

"Yeah, we should be there by tomorrow night at the latest."

"Yay! Goldenrod, here we come!"

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to White, three other people were saying the exact same thing. Red, Lyra, and Gold all had exclaimed the exact same thing. All seventeen people were headed towards Goldenrod, headed towards an event that couldn't be avoided. An event that would change the future of their world forever.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm not sure when I'll get time to update, I've been pretty busy with school, but I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner. Goldenrod is in the next chapter. And stuff happens.**


	6. Of Gatherings and Goldenrod

**Author Note:**

**Sorry it's been awhile! I've been **_**really **_**busy, which is annoying since it's supposed to be summer vacation. **

**On a brighter note, Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, or if you just read this. It means a lot to me! :)**

_**Previously cuz it's been awhile:**_

_**Lyra, Blue, Sapphire and Ruby are together, going to Goldenrod because Lance is refusing to allow the gypsies in any of his cities.  
>White (who just caught a Deerling named Jessica), Black and Emerald are going to Goldenrod hoping for asylum<br>Green, Red, Yellow and Silver are heading to Goldenrod in the hopes of finding a clue about what happened to Green's family (Well, Silver doesn't actually care, he's just along for the ride)  
>Gold, Platina, Dia, Crys, Wally, and Pearl are also going to Goldenrod, because Platina wants to visit places. And no one says no to her.<strong>_

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: Of Gatherings and Goldenrod<p>

* * *

><p><strong>11:00am<strong>

Outside Goldenrod City

_With Black_

White, Black and Emerald walked down the road, their lagging pace becoming much more energetic as the city came into view. "We're here!" White exclaimed, bouncing up and down.

"Finally," Emerald muttered. "I'm sick of this road."

Goldenrod City was a huge city, certainly the largest city in Johto and one of the largest cities in all of the kingdoms. Like most of the capitols, Goldenrod had a stone wall completely surrounding the city. These walls were created to defend the city in times of war, in times of peace they were considered unnecessary and the gates were usually left open. Black was quite surprised to find the front gate to Goldenrod closed.

The group approached the shut gate and they were soon assaulted by a booming voice. "Who goes there?"

"Really? Who actually says that?" Emerald muttered.

"We seek an audience with King Lance," White said to the guard, ignoring Emerald's comment.

The guard laughed at that and replied tauntingly, "You seek an audience with the _king?"_

The guards head poked over the side of the watch tower to get a glimpse of the people arrogant enough to ask to see the _king_. But as soon as he saw the people his laughing ceased. He checked something in the tower, glanced back at the three and pulled a lever. "The castle is straight through the gate," the guard said. "Go on through."

"Great!" White exclaimed walking through the gate without pause. Black followed, but with much more trepidation. It was only after the guard had seen them that he let them in. _What could have changed his mind so quickly? _He wondered to himself.

The city was not at all like what Black was expecting. Castelia had always had an air of happiness about it, even in the poorer sections and Black had assumed that Goldenrod would be similar. It wasn't. Everyone he saw had their heads down, as if afraid, and were hurrying on their way, as if afraid to stay outside their homes for too long. The stores were all run down, some obviously closed and others only barely staying in business. All in all, it looked to Black as if the city was dying.

"Wow," White said quietly. "Is it just me, or is this city really depressing?"

"There's definitely something off here," Black replied.

"I think that Rattata is eating someone," Emerald said gaping at a man in an alley.

White grabbed Emerald and dragged him away from the sight. "Let's get out of here."

As the three walked further into the city the quality of life went noticeably upwards, but it was still a far cry from the prosperity of the Castelia streets. After seeing more of the city than Black really cared to, they reached the interior wall, the one protecting the castle. The gate to the castle was closed as well, but it opened as soon as the guard on duty caught sight of them.

Black had read books about Goldenrod's singular castle design, but no amount of reading prepared him for the beauty of the castle. The layout of the Goldenrod castle was not traditional in the least. Instead of being built up from stone like most castles, the building were carved out of trees or dug out from the ground. The overall effect was that they had walked from a city into a forest. "This is…the castle?" Emerald said confused.

"It is," Black confirmed. "That's the throne room." He pointed at the largest tree in the clearing.

"Really?" White said staring at the tree. The tree was by far the biggest Black had ever seen. And the most amazing thing about it was that through careful carving and the aid of Grass-type Pokémon, the tree was still alive.

"Why would you put the throne room in a _tree?" _asked Emerald.

"It's great for temperature control," Black replied. "Cool in summer and warm in winter." It was only after Emerald shot him a weird look that Black realized he'd asked the question rhetorically. The three approached the tree and the wooden doors carved into the tree swung outward to grant them access. Everything in the room, including the throne, was carved out of the tree. _I guess that would cut down on stealing, _Black thought absently.

His attention was soon drawn to a red-haired man sitting on a throne.

"King Lance we came to beg for your help!" White began. Lance held up a hand to silence her.

"I cannot help you. You attempted to kill the king of Unova. That cannot be forgiven."

"But I didn't –"

"Silence!" He gestured at one of his guards and the indicated guard walked over to the group. He held a piece of parchment out to them and they examined it. The top had two pictures, one of Black and one of White. Black quickly read the blurb his sense of unease growing with each word. The document stated that there was a sizable reward for anyone who brought Black and White to a man named Ghetsis.

"But I didn't do it!" White screamed. "I'm innocent!" But her pleas were ignored as the guards herded the teens out the door and towards the dungeons.

* * *

><p><strong>12:00pm<strong>

Outside Goldenrod City

_With Blue_

Lyra attempted to get her and the gypsies into the city, but the guard was adamant that the city wasn't taking any guests. Lyra didn't agree with this. This led to Lyra, Blue, Sapphire and Ruby standing in front of a section of wall far from the gate and the guard who watched over the city.

"Scaling this wall will be easy!" Blue proclaimed.

"Why am I here?" Ruby wondered.

"Let's do this!" Lyra exclaimed, ignoring Ruby.

"Go Jiggly!" Blue released her Jigglypuff who proceeded to do a dance.

Ruby suddenly became very interested. "Wow! That Jigglypuff is a star!" Ruby started examining the Pokémon, measuring it and began muttering to himself what kind of outfits he could make. Jiggly looked very flattered and began swaying back and forth, fluttering her eyes at Ruby demurely.

_That's my Jiggly, _Blue thought proudly. _Get as much free stuff out of him as you can! _

"Hey!" Sapphire exclaimed after this had been going on for longer than she liked. "We're s'posed to be breakin' into the city, not designing _clothes_."

Jiggly and Ruby sent Sapphire matching pouts.

"Jiggly," Blue said pointedly. The pink Pokémon nodded and inhaled deeply. She was soon over five times her original size and began to float. Sapphire and Blue both grabbed onto the Pokémon before she got blown away.

"…We're sneaking in on…a _Jigglypuff_?" Ruby said. "How will they not see us?"

"I was hoping for momentary blindness," Blue answered.

"And according to my amazing future seeing powers….that's not going to happen," Lyra commented.

"Well, unless you have a better idea we're stuck with this," Blue said defensively.

Lyra took one of her Pokéballs and released the Pokémon inside. "Mystic, can you distract the guards while we ride this Jigglypuff over the wall?"

The Misdreavus released a quiet laugh which Blue took to mean, "Of course." Mystic faded out of sight and Lyra grinned, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The four of them somehow managed to get onto the Jigglypuff, though it was by no means comfortable. Jiggly landed in an alley and promptly deflated, sending the four teens sprawling.

"Freaking Jigglypuff," Sapphire grumbled as she rubbed her head from where it had slammed into the ground.

"Don't insult Jiggly," Blue reprimanded. Blue returned her pink Pokémon and turned to the others. "So where to now?"

"We need to see Lance," Lyra replied. "I've heard he lives in that giant tree." Three heads turned in the indicated direction and saw that there was in fact a giant tree in the center of the city.

As the group made their way to the tree, they passed through the poor slums. "What's the deal with this city?" Blue wondered. "I thought Goldenrod was one of the richest cities in the world."

"It is. Or at least it used to be," Ruby said.

"What do you know about it sissy boy?" Sapphire asked, sounding slightly confused.

"I was born here," he replied. "I don't remember it being like this though. It has been a long time since I've been here."

"Guys!" Blue interrupted. "We're here." The interior gate was open, so the group walked straight through heading for the largest tree in the forested area.

"What is this?" Sapphire exclaimed upon seeing the 'castle'. "There're way too many trees here!"

"I think it's nice," Lyra contradicted.

"Of course ya do. Stupid gypsy," Sapphire muttered.

"I like it too," Ruby commented.

"Excuse me," A loud voice said. "What are you doing in the castle?"

A guard stood in front of the group, glaring at them.

"Hello sir!" Blue said. "We're representatives of the Fortune Gypsies, and we would like to speak with King Lance!"

"Too bad. The king's not taking any visitors. I'm taking you to the holding cell to be fined for trespassing."

"What?" Lyra exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"No one's allowed in the castle, yet here you are. Trespassing." During this conversation some other guards came over and they reached for Blue's hands to bind them. There was no way she was going to let that happen. She was Blue! The best thief in all of Kanto! She grabbed one of her Pokéballs and was about to send out Jiggly when Lyra grabbed her hand, preventing her from releasing the Pokémon.

"Wait! We can't fight them. It will just get us in more trouble," She explained.

"But –" Blue protested.

"She's right," Sapphire reluctantly said. "We _are _trespassing, but if we go quietly they'll let us off easier."

"…Fine."

* * *

><p>Goldenrod Prison<p>

The guards took the four and brought them underground to their holding cells. The dungeon was lit only by the light coming in from the open door and had an odd dank smell. Though the rust and dents in the wall gave the jail a sense of disrepair, Blue could tell it was superficial. The parts that mattered were still very much intact.

Everything the teens owned that the guards thought held some value were confiscated and thrown haphazardly into a chest, which the guard made a show of leaving unlocked. Just to show how powerless the four were. Or maybe he was just forgetful. "This is much less pleasant," Ruby commented, staring at the rusting bars of the cell.

"I actually agree with you," Sapphire said.

"I've been in worse," Blue added.

"Mistress of fortune!" a voice exclaimed. Lyra looked over to see White, Black and a boy she didn't know locked in a different across the hallway.

"White and Black!" Lyra exclaimed. "It's good to see you! Well, you know not _here, _but in general."

"This is Emerald," Black introduced. "Emerald, this is Lyra; she's a fortune-telling gypsy."

After getting a better look at the blonde boy, Lyra exclaimed, "You're The Dwarf!"

"What?" the boy cried, clearly offended.

"In my deck of cards, you're portrayed by the Dwarf," Lyra explained. "I'd show you, but the guards took them." Lyra gestured helplessly at the chest.

"Your cards are insulting!" Emerald complained.

"They just tell it like it is," Lyra replied with a shrug.

"They took my beautiful Jessica!" White whined.

"The cards took you're my friend?" Sapphire asked.

"The guards took her, and Jessica is her Deerling," Black corrected.

"It's not just Jessica," Emerald pointed out. "They took _all _of our Pokémon –"

"And my sword," Sapphire added.

"– So we have no way of getting out."

"Maybe we do," Blue mused. "Lyra, you never actually returned your Misdreavus, did you?"

"Oh! You're right, I never did. MYSTIC!" The last was screamed, forcing the other prisoners to cover their ears desperately. "Oh there you are!" The Misdreavus shimmered into view right above Lyra's head. "Can you get us out of here?"

"Was she there the whole time?" Black wondered.

"Yeah," Lyra replied as Mystic floated over to the chest containing their things and Pokémon. "She just follows me around if I don't give her orders. She's my best friend!"

"Riiight," Emerald drawled. "So you're card is the Pokémon Lover!"

Lyra sent him a _what? _look and replied, "No. Mine is the Future."

"I'm the Matchmaker," Blue announced proudly.

"Did everyone get cool ones but me?" Emerald asked dejectedly.

"Nope," Lyra replied. "Black and White shares the Runaways card."

Mystic returned from the chest at this point, interrupting the conversation. The Pokémon was telekinetically wielding a sword – Sapphire's sword – and it swung it at the lock.

"Wait!" Sapphire cried, but it was too late. The sword hit the lock and bent in an awkward angle, leaving it more V-shaped than anything. "It's decorative," Sapphire sighed.

"You have a _decorative_ sword?" Blue said skeptically.

"Well yeah, no one actually uses swords," Sapphire pointed out. "We battle using our Pokémon. The sword is just ceremonial. And now it's ruined." Sapphire cradled the remains of her sword (which the Misdreavus had dropped upon realizing its uselessness).

"Get my Ditto," Blue told the Ghost-type. "It can change into a key and unlock the gate. Mystic nodded and floated back over to the chest, where it looked at the multiple Pokéballs in confusion. Unable to determine which one was the Ditto, it decided to open all of them. The resulting pile of Pokémon was so confusing Blue couldn't tell where one Pokémon started and one ended. And to top it all off there was no sign of Ditty. "Ditty!" Blue called. A muffled squeak was the only response. Luckily the Pokémon began untangling themselves on their own and the Ditto was soon freed.

"Jessica!" White crooned, sounding as if she had found her one true love after being separated from him (or her, in Jessica's case) for many long years. The Deerling shot her trainer and exasperated look, but went to her all the same. During this emotional (on one side anyway) interlude, Ditty had made her way through the Pokémon pile to Blue. Blue reached her arms through the bars of the cell, picked up Ditty and held it up to the lock. The pink Pokémon changed itself into a key which Blue put in the lock. Blue turned it delighted to meet no resistance. The door swung open and Blue sprang out.

"We're free!" she sang. Sapphire walked over to the chest to grab the keys to free the others once she realized Blue had no plans to do so. Once everyone was free they sorted through Pokémon and Pokéballs, eventually getting all the Pokémon back to their owners. The other odds and ends in the box were returned as well, despite Blue's best attempts to sneak other people's things into her pockets.

Finally prepared, the group went outside only to find themselves on the edge of a war zone.

* * *

><p><strong>1:00pm<strong>

Outside Goldenrod City

_With Silver_

"Let me in, I'm Prince Green of Kanto," Green yelled at the soldier manning the gate.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of Unova," the guard replied sarcastically. "What would the prince be doing alone out here? I think you just want in. And this guard let's no one in!"

"We saw you let some people in a few minutes ago!" Red accused.

"Well they're wanted for attempted murder," the guard explained.

After a pause, Yellow said hesitantly, "Doesn't that make them the kind of people you _don't_ want to let in?"

"Unova's granting a sizable monetary reward to whoever catches them. So unless you have a price on your head, or are _actual _royalty, you're not getting in."

"But he _is_ actual royalty," Red said quietly.

"Let's just find another way in," Green said, walking away from the wall. The group followed him as he walked around the wall, searching for another way inside.

"Is that a Jigglypuff?" Yellow exclaimed, pointing at a pink sphere which was floating over the wall.

"Blue!" Silver shouted. "That's Jiggly, her Jigglypuff. We have to get in!"

"They wouldn't let us in the gate," Red pointed out.

"So we don't go through the gate," Silver replied annoyed. "We go over it, like Blue did."

"My only flying Pokémon is Scyther, and he can't carry anyone," Green said. "Unless you have a large flying Pokémon, I don't see how we're getting over."

"I have a Doduo," Yellow informed. "But he can't fly so… Um… never mind."

"My Murkrow can fly," Silver said.

"But he'll only be able to carry one at a time," Green counted. "And I don't trust you to come back and get us."

"And the guard will see us," Yellow said, pointing at the guard, who was now talking to a group of six teens. Right as Silver turned to look, the gate opened allowing the other group entrance into the city.

"What!" Red exclaimed.

"Are they criminals?" Yellow worried.

"No," Green stated. "The girl on the Ponyta was Lady Berlitz. Her family is very influential in Sinnoh."

"How come she got in and you didn't?" Red whined.

"Why don't we ask him," Yellow suggested, jogging back towards the guards before anyone could answer.

"Excuse me!" Yellow called up to the guard as the other three walked over to her. "Why did you let them in?"

"I'm extremely sorry Prince Green," the guard said, his voice much more respectful than last time. "I get so many fake royals here I thought you were one of them. Please, come in. Enjoy your stay." The gates swung open, revealing the splendor (really the lack there of) of Goldenrod.

The four walked slowly, taking in the environment. There were guards positioned at every corner and Silver soon surmised why. The people were clothed in raggedly clothes and beggars filled the streets. Goldenrod was awash with poverty.

"This place is creepy," Yellow murmured. Glancing down one of the alleys and seeing what he was sure were glowing red eyes; Silver had to agree with her assessment. Goldenrod was downright creepy.

"It wasn't anything like this the last time I was here," Green mused.

"I can see why they're selling criminals," Silver said, glaring at a beggar who was staring hungrily at his coin purse.

The four made an unspoken agreement to hurry to the castle, none wanting to spend more time than necessary on the streets. What greeted them at the castle was an all out brawl. Silver was an experienced battler, but even he was having trouble identified who exactly was on who's side and what was even going on.

"There's lady Berlitz," Yellow said, pointing at the girl they had seen earlier.

"And her Ponyta," Red added. The horse Pokémon was attempting to throw off a Growlithe that had jumped on its back. An Arcanine jumped over the Ponyta, knocking the Growlithe off as it soared through the air.

"What is going –" Yellow was interrupted by a boy slamming into her. "Oww," she moaned. Red immediately rushed over.

"Yellow are you alright?" Red asked.

"I'm fine," She replied, taking the hand he offered to help her up.

The boy rubbed his head and unsteadily stood, "I'm extremely sorry," the boy said, bowing his head to Yellow. "I am Wally Mitsuru."

"Ah, don't worry, I'm fine. I'm Yellow," Yellow replied. "Uh, do you know what's happening?" She gestured at the battle.

"The guards attempted to arrest us all," Wally explained.

"Why would they try to put Lady Berlitz in prison?" Red wondered.

"Ransom," Green and Silver replied simultaneously. Silver let Green explain the rest. "Goldenrod needs money, and ransoming important people is a way to get it."

"Then aren't you a target?" Yellow asked. As she said this a fine powder fell over the four. "Uh oh." The powder settled over the four and they collapsed, asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>1:10pm<strong>

Outside Goldenrod

_With Crystal_

"Isn't that…" I started.

"Prince Green of Kanto," Lady Berlitz finished.

"And they turned him away?" Pearl said incredulous. "Why wouldn't they let a prince in the city? Kanto and Johto aren't at war are they?"

"Of course they're not!" Crystal exclaimed.

"Even _I _knew that," Gold added.

"Me too!" Dia said excitedly.

By this time the group was close enough to the gate for the guard to shout, "Halt!" at them.

"I'm Lady Berlitz and I request entry into the city."

The guard stared at her for a few seconds then opened the gate. "Of course Lady Berlitz. Anything for you."

"That was easy," Crystal commented. "Why didn't you let Prince Green in?" She asked the guard curiously.

"That wasn't…Wait, you mean that was actually the prince?" the guard exclaimed.

"I knew that too!" Gold said.

"Me too!" Dia added. "We're doing really well today!"

Crystal rolled her eyes and followed Lady Berlitz, who had simply kept walking (read: sitting on her Ponyta who was doing the walking).

The group arrived at the castle quickly, none wanting to spend more time than necessary in the downtrodden lower town. The gate was already open, _They're expecting us, _Crystal guessed. A group of guards greeted the group, but instead of offering to guide them to the throne room, as Crystal was expecting, they halted the group.

"You're trespassing," one of the guards said.

"What?" Gold demanded. "The gate was open! How are we trespassing?"

"We're taking you to our holding cells," the guard continued, ignoring Gold completely.

Pearl and Dia instantly stepping in front of Lady Berlitz protectively. "You're not taking Lady anywhere," Dia said, in the sternest voice Crystal had heard him use, which admittedly wasn't all that intimidating. The sandwich half in his mouth ruined the effect.

The guards seemed to take this as a threat, and soon each of them had a Pokémon in front of them. Crystal quickly analyzed the situation. _Five guards, five Pokémon. There are six of us, but Wally doesn't have any Pokémon. _Before Crystal could finish her analysis the guards began their assault. Arckiee appeared in front of Crystal protecting her from the Snubbull sent to tackle her.

"Arckiee, Flame Wheel," Crystal commanded. Arckiee complied, sending a wheel of fire towards the Snubbull. Soon all the Pokémon were using different moves and Crystal couldn't keep up with all the different Pokémon. She remembered sending Arckiee to help Lady Berlitz's Ponyta and fighting with the Snubbull from earlier and a Zubat, but later she would have trouble recalling the details.

The rhythm of the fighting was broken by a wave of powder flying towards Crystal and her friends. Crystal identified the powder as Sleeping Powder and the perpetrator to be a Butterfree.

"Gust!" Pearl commanded. The Chatot responded immediately, sending torrents of wind at the dust, sending it over the group and falling somewhere behind them. Crystal turned and was surprised to see it landing on Prince Green and the three people with him. Pearl noticed this as well and said sheepishly, "Oops."

"I got this," Gold exclaimed. "Tickle!" Gold's Aipom shot forward and began tickling the four unconscious teens.

"_That _was your plan?" Crystal yelled. "Tackle Arckiee!" Crystal commanded upon seeing Ataro's previous opponent – a Persian – preparing to attack the Aipom in its moment of distraction. Arckiee rammed into the cat-Pokémon, sending it into one of the trees that made up the 'castle.'

"AIPOM!" Ataro suddenly exclaimed, flying in front of Crystal stopped only when Pearl's Chatot caught it. Turning, Crystal saw that Prince Green had awoken and surmised that he must have thrown the Aipom. Normally Crystal was against violence towards Pokémon, but under the circumstances, she really couldn't blame the prince. The other three were awake as well and reaching for their Pokéballs. _Good, _Crystal thought. _With them helping we can hurry up and finish this. _

With the help of Green's party the guards were taken off in record time. "It doesn't matter!" one of them taunted. "Reinforcements are coming!"

As Crystal was pondering the ramifications of this statement, a large group of teenagers came up from an underground room. Crystal eyed them with suspicions, unaware of their allegiances.

"Blue!" the red head with Green exclaimed.

_So probably falsely imprisoned like us then, _Crystal mused.

"What's goin' on?" one of them wondered.

"No time to explain," Crystal said. "We need to get out of here now."

"But we just got here…" Gold complained.

"And we've already been here for too long," Crystal replied.

"They closed the gate behind us," Pearl pointed out, gesturing at the large metal doors preventing their escape.

"So we break them down," Crystal said.

"Yeah!" Gold exclaimed. "Swift Ataro!" Ataro jumped up and sent a wave of golden stars at the door. Following his lead, Crystal told Arckiee to use Ember. The others joined in and soon the door (and quite a bit of the wall around it) was nothing but charred rubble on the street. "Woo!" Gold yelled happily.

"Let's get out of this awful city!" White shouted.

The ragtag group dashed through the city, using their Pokémon to create a path out of the city. They ran over the outer gate much like they did the first one and continued on, past the city. The group kept going, afraid to stop too close to the city.


	7. Of Cards and Conversation

**Author Note:**

**Agh, school has started and I have so much work to do now! And the brit lit class I'm taking is the most boring class I've ever taken. And I've taken some really boring classes. **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or alerted! Sorry it's been so long, but with the amount of work I've have, updates are going to be slow. **

**READ THIS: In the part where Lyra and Crystal talk about the fate cards, Lyra's lines are in quotes and Crys's are the lines in-between the dashes, sorry the formats weird, but I think it would have looked worse if I'd put it all on separated lines. **

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Of Cards and Conversation<p>

* * *

><p>Johto<p>

Outside Goldenrod City

_With Gold_

"So…introductions?" Gold suggested. "I'm Gold and I'm awesome. And that's all you need to know about me."

The others went through their introductions (though Gold found theirs much less impressive than his). After the usual pleasantries, Red brought the conversation around to his and Green's mission.

"We never did get to look for your parents," Red said disappointedly to Green.

"There wasn't anyone else in the prison," Blue informed. "Although that seems a bit odd now that I think about it. With all the false accusations it seems like the prison would have been overflowing."

"Maybe there's a second prison," White suggested.

"If there is it's a secret one," Black replied. "I've seen the blueprints of the castle and there's only one prison listed."

"Or they're sending all the prisoners they do get somewhere else," Crystal theorized. "They're obviously in desperate need of money so it's possible they sell the prisoners as slaves."

"You can sell prisoners?" Gold said confused.

"Not legally," Crystal replied. "But there's a black market for it."

Lyra nodded, "Gypsies are a common target for slavers. Some of them also actually _are _slavers. Not my group of course," she added hurriedly.

"That's why I hate gypsies," Sapphire muttered.

"So we're back to having no idea where you're parents are," Red said disappointedly.

"We could do a bait and follow thing," Lyra said, getting excited.

"What do you mean?" White asked.

"One of us goes back and gets captured. Then when they're sold we all follow and track whoever gets sold back to the base," Lyra explained.

"There are so many ways that could go wrong," Crystal commented.

"Why should we risk ourselves anyway?" Silver asked. "I don't care about finding the prisoners. Green's the only one looking for people."

"Sounds like an awesome adventure to me!" Gold exclaimed.

"Stopping the slave traders is in everyone's best interest," Crystal said. "Lance is corrupt and needs to be removed from power. Finding the slavers is the best way to do it."

"I thought you were against this plan," Silver accused.

"I said there were a lot of ways it could go wrong, not that I was against it," Crystal corrected.

"So you think we should do this?" Wally asked.

"Yes!" Red replied, though the question was clearly directed towards Crystal. "We have a chance of finding Green's family!"

"But, we're just speculating," Pearl pointed out. "We don't even know if Lance is actually selling prisoners."

"Who cares?" Blue exclaimed. "This sounds like fun! Let's do it!" At Silver's annoyed look she added, "If we do find the slavers, think of all the treasure we'll be able to steal, er, _liberate_."

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, but not one member of the group could think of a reason not to go through with the plan. It having apparently been decided that they were going through with it, the group began to figure out the details of their plan.

"Who's going to be bait?" Yellow asked nervously.

"White and Black are out," Emerald said. "They're wanted by Ghetsis so probably wouldn't be sold to the right people."

"If we want to make sure that they go the same place as Green's family, Green should be bait," Crystal suggested hesitantly.

Green nodded. "I already decided I'd do whatever I had to, to find my family."

"I'll go with you," Red said instantly.

"No," Green replied. "Going back is the best chance of finding my family, but I want you to track me. I don't trust anyone else."

"I'll go with Green," Blue said, twining her arm through one of his. "Then when you inevitably lose the trail and we're stuck all on our own I can break us out."

"We can follow in my gypsy troop," Lyra said. "Gypsies can go anywhere, well; not towns anymore, but we shouldn't arouse suspicion."

"I'll go too," Silver said, glaring at Green.

"No," Blue said. "You'll be the best for tracking us. Unless any of these others are secretly thieves."

"…Fine," Silver grumbled, though he still appeared to be trying to set Green on his fire with his eyes.

* * *

><p>Outside the Goldenrod City walls<p>

_With Blue_

"Well I guess we don't have to argue with the guard this time," Blue commented, kicking the pieces of rubble, which was all that remained of the gate, with her foot.

"Which is going to make it harder to be arrested," Green pointed out.

"Hey you two!" a loud voice exclaimed. "Stop right there!"

"Or not," Green finished. The guard walked up to the two and dragged them off, back to the castle.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra <em>

"And here we are," Lyra said as the group arrived at a collection of wagons. Around the wagons there were a few Bouffalant and Tauros grazing and seemingly unworried. But one thing was missing in the gypsy camp.

"Where are all the people?" Gold asked.

"I have no idea," Lyra said, her previously calm tone rapidly becoming worried. Lyra ran the rest of the way towards the wagon and began searching inside the wagons, but all of them were vacant. "They're all gone!"

"Did they go out to dinner?" Dia suggested.

"No, they would never leave the camp unless they were forced," Lyra said, her tone conveying barely concealed panic.

"So they left the wagons and Pokémon and took all the people?" Gold wondered.

"No, they took one of the wagons too," Lyra corrected.

"The treasure wagon?" Silver asked. Lyra nodded.

"They're all gone," She said quietly. "I never should have brought them here."

"Don't worry," Red said cheerfully. "They were probably taken to Goldenrod, so Green and Blue will be with them!"

"I don't know if Blue being with them is a good thing," Sapphire muttered. "The crazy thief."

"She probably won't be able to steal much from them in jail," Yellow said hopefully.

"…I think you're underestimating her," Sapphire replied.

"I guess this doesn't change the plan anyway," Lyra sighed. "I'll just have to give you all a crash course in being gypsies and hope we find the others with Blue and Green."

"I'm going into town," Silver declared, walking towards the city. "I'll send my Murkrow when they start moving the prisoners." No one bothered to argue with him.

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

Silver was able to sneak over the wall much more easily this time since he didn't have the added annoyance of Green, Red and Yellow. There was also the added benefit of the guards being too busy repairing the gate to bother monitoring the perimeter. With the aid of his Murkrow he slipped over the wall, a silent shadow. Once inside the walls he walked towards the palace, easily blending in with a simple slump of his shoulders. His clothes were designed for evading notice, and nothing aids in being ignored than dressing like a pauper. This was doubly true in Goldenrod, as the majority of the population was dirt poor.

Silver walked on, using side roads instead of the main one and soon arrived at the inner wall, the one that led to the castle. He had his Murkrow fly him to the top of the wall. A quick examination of his surroundings and he knew that the guard previously occupying the guard tower was elsewhere. Silver decided to take the guards place finding it to be an excellent place to observe the ground without being discovered. He crouched in place and watched the prison, waiting for Blue to emerge.

* * *

><p>Gypsy Caravan<p>

_With Yellow_

After gathering the Tauros and Bouffalant together and hitching them to the wagons (which everyone tried to help with, but ended with Lyra refusing to let anyone but Yellow, who was using her knowledge as a stable boy (secretly stable_ girl_) to her advantage. Everyone else was just getting in the way) they waited to get word from Silver. Once the two had finished, Yellow wandered over to where Red was sitting leaning against one of the wagons.

"I shouldn't have let him go by himself," Red mumbled to himself.

"Who, Green?" Yellow asked.

Red's head jerked up in surprise, evidently not having realized she'd wandered over. After gesturing at her for her to sit down and waiting until she did so, Red continued. "I should've gone with him."

"Blue will take care of him," Yellow replied, which she continued in her head with, _probably. _

"_I'm _supposed to protect him," Red insisted. "His family gave me so much, and I haven't been able to hold up my end."

"Have you known Green for long?" Yellow wondered. "You two seem close."

"I've known him for pretty much my whole life," Red replied. "I never met my parents, and one day I went to the palace searching for food. I was caught of course, but instead of punishing me, King Samuel took me in and gave me a job. Green's my best friend."

"We'll be following him," Yellow said, trying to be reassuring. "You're still helping him. And hopefully at the end of this we'll find his family too."

"Hopefully," Red echoed. "Being a gypsy will be fun though right?" Red said, changing the subject and forcing happiness into his voice. Yellow could tell Red's tone was false, but she played along anyway, accepting the subject change and talking enthusiastically about gypsy life.

* * *

><p><em>With Crystal <em>

"…Then I met those two wierdos and ended up in Goldenrod," Emerald said, completing his explanation to Gold and Crystal of how he came to be in the Goldenrod jail with White and Black.

"Our story's better," Gold muttered. "_We _met a princess."

"She's not a princess," Crystal corrected. "She's a very important noble."

"Oh. What about Wally?"

"He's a diplomat."

"So no royalty?"

"None except for Green. And Emerald met him at about the same time we did."

"Lame."

"My story's better then," Emerald stated. "_I _got to fight with some green-haired guy. You guys just met a bunch of rich people." This sparked an argument between Gold and Emerald which Crystal didn't feel like sticking around for.

She wandered over to Lyra, who seemed to be the only person not engaged in a conversation, Red and Yellow were sitting together, Pearl and Dia seemed to be performing something for Lady Berlitz, Wally was trying to break up Ruby and Sapphire's argument (and failing) and she'd just left the horror that was Emerald and Gold. So that left Lyra.

However, once Crystal got to Lyra, she realized she had nothing to say. 'Sorry all your friends and family got kidnapped' did not seem like a good conversation starter. Crystal stood staring at Lyra for so long that Lyra's look turned puzzled and Crystal willed _anything _to come out of her mouth. "Nice weather huh?" Crystal finally blurted, face palming internally. _The weather? Really Crys? _Crystal mentally berated herself.

"It is very nice," Lyra replied earnestly.

"Are you doing alright?" Crystal asked. _Of course she's not okay! _Crystal yelled at herself.

"As long as we find them I'll be fine," Lyra replied. Lyra pulled out a card and waved it in front of Crystal's face.

Crystal automatically grabbed it, then stared at it confused. "What is this?"

"It's a fate card," Lyra replied. "Legend says that there are six relics remaining from the ancient seer society. This deck of cards is one of them."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Of course they don't work if you don't have a bit of magic in your blood, but luckily for me, I do. When I draw a card, I think of someone and the card I draw tells me about their character."

"So my character is 'The Order'?" Crystal clarified.

"Yep."

"How about the others?"

"Gold is the Chaos," – naturally – "Emerald's the Dwarf," – that's unfortunate – "Red's the Lion," – the Mythical creature? – "Yep. Representing bravery and loyalty. Pearl's the Rabbit, which represents speed, Dia's the Jester, Platina's the Queen," – Wait. What? She's not a Queen though – "It just means she has a regal demeanor. Green's the Prince, but even if he wasn't actually a prince, that would still be his card." – interesting – "Yellow's the Nature, White and Black are the Runaways," – they share a card? – "Yep. Blue's the Matchmaker and Silver's the Thief, Sapphire's the Warrior and Ruby's the Beauty."

"What about you?" Crystal asked.

"I'm the Future."

"I feel like we left someone out," Crystal murmured.

"I don't think so," Lyra replied.

In fact they _had _left someone out. That someone was currently trying to stop a fight between Sapphire and Ruby.

"Leave me alone sissy boy! He's trying to make me wear girly clothes!" Sapphire complained to Wally (the one who had been left out by Lyra and Crystal).

"She's dressed like a man!" Ruby exclaimed as if it were the worst crime committed in the last century.

"Can't you just get along for a little while?" Wally begged. "We don't want to attract attention."

"Ugh…Fine," Sapphire snapped, stomping off towards where Red and Yellow were seated. Ruby grumbled as well and headed off in the opposite direction.

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

Red and Yellow had been seated on the ground next to each other, sharing pleasant conversation. Then Sapphire abruptly sat herself in between them. The two jerked back in surprise as Sapphire announced, "I hate Ruby."

"I-I'm sure he's not that bad," Yellow stammered, still surprised by the girl's sudden entrance.

"He's _terrible,_" Sapphire insisted.

"He's weird, but his heart seems to be in the right place," Red said.

"And how long have you known him?" Sapphire retorted.

"Uh…long enough?"

"_Not _long enough," Sapphire grumbled.

* * *

><p>Goldenrod City<p>

_With Silver_

Silver was still in the guard tower, it having been as good a hiding place as he'd originally deduced. All the sneaking around and waiting reminded him of his childhood. When it was just him and Blue living on the streets of Sevii. He was broken out of his reminiscence by a few loud voices and one in particular drew his attention. It was Blue's.

Silver's eyes were drawn towards the voices and he saw a few guards leading a group of prisoners. _The gypsies plus Blue and Green, _Silver surmised. Blue's voice coming from the mob proved him right. "Where exactly are you taking us?" she asked. Blue glanced upwards and _winked _at him. Silver cursed to himself, no matter how much training he went through, Blue would _always_ be better than him. Despite Blue's ease in finding Silver's hiding place, Silver wasn't worried about anyone else finding his hiding place. No one was as good as Blue. No one.

The guard Blue had accosted told her to shut up and, for once, Blue obeyed. Though Silver assumed it had more to do with Green shoving a scarf in her mouth than what the guard said. Silver crept across the rooftops silently, following the group. He sent his Murkrow back to the others with a hastily scrawled note.

* * *

><p>Outside Goldenrod<p>

_With Lyra_

Lyra was idly shuffling her cards, trying to keep her mind off of the gypsies. A dark shape drew her attention and she tracked its progress. It came towards her and landed in front of her. "Silver's Murkrow," She commented, drawing the attention of the others (except for White and Dia who had fallen asleep)

Red rushed over followed by Yellow, the others remained where they were but were obviously watching. Lyra saw something attached to its leg and reached forward to take it, but the bird snapped at her, forcing her to bring her hand back.

"Let me try," Yellow suggested, slowly bringing her own hand towards Silver's Pokémon. She murmured soothingly to it and the Murkrow allowed her to grab the note. She read it aloud. "Blue and others on the move. That's all it says."

"That's wonderfully uninformative," Crystal said dryly.

"He didn' even give a direction?" Sapphire complained.

Yellow shook her head apologetically. The Murkrow made an irritated sound and took off, flying a ways off, then hovering looking back at the group impatiently. "It can lead us to Silver," Yellow said.

"Well let's go!" Gold exclaimed.

"C'mon everyone!" Lyra said, though this was directed at the Pokémon and not the humans. "Yip yip!" The Bouffalant and Tauros who had previously been dozing awoke with a start and most were startled into movement instantly. Others required more coaxing, but soon (after White and Dia had been thrown into the back of one of the wagons) the group was on their way, following Silver's Murkrow.

* * *

><p>Unknown Location<p>

_With No One_

In a darkened room, six people sat a circular table, their features in shadow. "Most of you have been here before," one of the people said. His voice held so much authority that he was indisputably the leader of the group. "But I will go over everything to respect our newest member, Cyrus from team Galactic." Eyes glinting in the dim lighting flicked towards the foreboding man who stared back impassively.

"Each of you is the leader of the main criminal group in your kingdom," the leader continued. "And each of you has been assigned one of the six sacred relics. Giovanni of Rocket has been assigned the Necklace of Fortune. Status?"

"We found the necklace in the possession of Princess Daisy of the Kanto Kingdom," Giovanni replied. "Lance kidnapped the family while they were visiting Goldenrod and handed them over to me."

"Lance," the leader mused. "I've heard that the deal with him has been quite lucrative."

"I give him money, he gives me slaves," Giovanni replied. "The deal has been suiting both of us quite well. He also gave us the relic of Johto, the Crystal of Faith."

"Rocket got two of the relics?" one of the men commented. "I thought each of us were after one."

"If you find yourself in the position to take one you take it, regardless of whether it's you're assigned relic or not," the leader said irritated.

"Aqua had been assigned the Crystal of Faith, but since that has already been obtained, Aqua has been reassigned to assist Magma in finding the Cape of Chance. Status report."

"We've located the cape," Maxie, the leader of Team Magma said. "The king of Hoenn, Steven Stone, owns it."

"We're working on stealing it," Archie of Aqua added.

"Plasma, I've heard that your plans went a bit awry," the leader said.

"We've met with a minor inconvenience," Ghetsis of Plasma said. "Our plan was to gain King Alder's trust by preventing an attempt on our life, which we planned of course, but we had an unplanned witness. We thought that the daughter would go with her father on his trip, but she was there when we poisoned the bread. But we're taking care of it. Nazo and I found her on the way to Goldenrod. With the bounty we placed on her head we're sure Lance will bring her to us soon. But the other part of our plan worked, Alder now trusts me completely and Nazo was able to steal the Staff of Luck from the treasury."

"Make sure you take care of the girl," the leader said. "Cyrus, you're the newest member, how have you progressed in finding the Ring of Destiny?"

"My men have tracked the ring. It was a gift from King Rowan of Sinnoh to the Berlitz family. We searched their home, but we found nothing. This leads me to believe that their daughter, / Platinum Berlitz must have the ring. My men are out searching for her now."

"Find her. As for me," the leader began. "I'm looking for the sixth relic, the Cards of Fate. It seems the leader of the Fortune gypsies has the cards. Soon all the relics will be ours. And once they're ours, the world will be ours for the taking!"

A cheer roared through the room scaring a Pidgey which had flown in. After the noise quieted, the Pokémon landed in front of Giovanni, extending his leg towards the man. Giovanni took the note attached to the Pidgey's leg and read the document quickly. "Good news," Giovanni said. "Lance has kidnapped all the Fortune Gypsies and Prince Green of Kanto and is bringing them to my holding area. Lyra should be with them."

"I'll go with you to your holding area then," said the leader. "Meeting adjourned."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

**Any gym leaders/other random character you want to be gypsies? If so tell me and I'll include them! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)**


	8. Of Mayhem and Monologues

**Author's Note:**

**Sorry it's been so long! RL got in the way and I didn't have enough time to write :( I hope people are still interested in reading this, and I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you! Please enjoy :)**

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Of Mayhem and Monologues<p>

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

The Gypsies were surprisingly cool about being prisoners as it seemed that part of being almost universally disliked equated to being very familiar with prisons of all kinds. Blue respected and appreciated their composed demeanor. She'd been in prisons before (as part of her plans, no one had ever _actually_ caught her) and most of the other inmates were really irritating to be around with all the crying and bemoaning their fates. The gypsies seemed to be people more from Blue's walk of life. When Green and Blue had entered the cell it interrupted the gypsies planning their own escape attempt. Blue actually had to convince them not to implement it since she and Green needed to find the buyers.

The main planner as far as Blue could tell was a girl dressed all in black (a sharp contrast from the majority of the gypsies who wore colorful, almost garish clothing) who had introduced herself as Janine. She and her father (who was dressed also in black) were seated near the back discussing the guard locations and rotations. The other gypsies acted as a screen, though a young girl with purple hair added a comment occasionally.

The gypsies introduced themselves and Blue promptly forgot all of their names (except for Janine since she seemed like she could be a potential partner in crime. And Falkner. Because he was sulking in a corner and it was weirding Blue out). Green joined Falkner in the corner and they appeared to relate to each other on some higher level (but clearly a stupid level, Blue surmised. If it were something special or important, surely she would understand it).

Blue joined Janine and Janine's dad ("Koga", he kept reminding her. "I don't care," she'd reply) in discussing their courses of action and ensuring they had contingencies for it things went differently than expected. Blue and Janine became fast friends which seemed to worry Green if the unsettled looks he sent in their direction were any indication. Janine, it turned out, was a ninja just like her father, hence her affinity for sneaking around. The two had joined the gypsies after her mother died.

A few hours after Green and Blue had been brought in (nightfall, Blue guessed by the passage of time) the guards returned and began getting the prisoners up and chaining them together. It seemed it was time to move out.

"Where are we going?" Asked one of the older gypsies. Blue believed the woman's name to be Batty, her name was _actually_ Agatha, but Blue found this difficult to remember, no matter how many times she was reminded.

All Agatha's question got her was a rough shove. No one else bothered to speak up - they knew it was someplace bad they were being sent. The actual _where _of it didn't matter so much.

Blue escaped her cuffs a scant few seconds after they were put on her, but realized this could pose a problem and put them back on, wondering when her life had reached a point where she was voluntarily handcuffing herself. _When you met Green, _her subconscious remarked to her, and she mentally glared at herself. Blue couldn't tell how Green felt about the situation. She had been having trouble reading him. This fact bothered her as she prided herself on being able to read just about anyone, including Silver, who was similar to Green in some ways (such as the way they both enjoyed scowling silently). Green however, he still eluded her. And this proved to be more of a bother than she had anticipated. Blue was not the sort of person to give up on something, she was the type to get what she wanted no matter the cost, be it an answer, a treasure, or the ability to understand a stand-offish prince. Besides, she assured herself, during this she'd surely ingratiate herself to him and he'd repay her somehow. So it wasn't a waste of time. In the back of her mind she knew that choosing to do this, a risky mission with a slim chance of a reward, was foolish when there were easier targets which she knew would pay off. She just hoped she didn't regret her choice. And with a glance at Green walking along in front of her, chains binding them together, she didn't think she would.

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

Silver had sent his Murkrow back to the group so they could follow behind him. Silver would tail Blue closely, his Murkrow would tail him and the others would follow his Murkrow. This way the caravan would be far enough away not to give the slavers notice that they were being followed. Silver found his job extremely simple. The slavers were traveling on a road through the woods which they had likely chosen because of its lack of use. On the other hand, however, it also made it ridiculously easy for Silver to follow them without being noticed.

Silver tailed the group long into the night and into the morning and the slavers (plus slaves) only stopped briefly a few times. A few hours past dawn the slavers called a halt and Silver could immediately tell that something was different about this stop. Previously they pulled out food and water and had the prisoners sit, but this time they kept the prisoners standing and none of the guards reached for the provisions. One of the guards (his fancier adornments signaling to Silver that he was the leader of the group) walked out of Silver's sight. Silver ignored him, focused as he was on Blue, so he was caught completely by surprise when the entire group simply vanished before his eyes.

After the first initial moments of shock wore off, Silver realized that they must have teleported. He lost them. He lost Blue. He jumped from his position in the trees and looked vainly around the small clearing for some sort of clue. But there was none. Silver had failed, and now Blue was gone.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra<em>

The caravan continued on following Silver's Murkrow trusting in it to lead them to Silver. When Lyra normally travelled with the gypsies there would be one or two gypsies at the head of each wagon. However this was actually unnecessary as the Bouffalant and Tauros were so well trained they would always follow the wagon in front of them. The arrangement was more for extreme cases than any real daily necessity. So Lyra decided to have only the front wagon manned so that everyone else could get some sleep. They had no idea how far the slavers were going, and so they didn't know when they would have to be ready to fight.

Lyra wasn't currently on duty (Black and White were the ones currently driving), but she couldn't sleep. She knew she should, but she was too worried. The way they were driving the caravan was a continuous reminder that Lyra's people, her family, was missing. Her family was in danger, and Lyra wasn't there when they needed her. Though Lyra had to admit to herself that her presence likely wouldn't have changed the outcome. Her gypsies were all very capable peopled and if they couldn't combat whatever came to take them, the addition of Lyra would have had very little impact.

Lyra's musings (_self-pity_ she admitted) were interrupted by the abrupt halt of the wagon. The halt also knocked Sapphire (who had fallen asleep in a seated position) onto Platina (who looked like a story book drawing of Sleeping Beauty) which woke the heiress up. Apparently Platina is not one you want to surprise because her immediate response was to violently push Sapphire (somehow still asleep) away from her which pushed the girl directly out of the wagon. Lyra lunged forward to catch her which ended with Lyra holding Sapphire up by her shirt as Sapphire dangled half out the back of the wagon. Sapphire finally woke up and began struggling, clearly confused (and Lyra couldn't really blame her) which made keeping her from falling on her face more difficult. Just as she felt she couldn't hold on any longer, her problem was solved by Red helpfully taking Sapphires hand and assisting her out of the wagon. Lyra hopped out next to Sapphire followed by Platina.

Lyra caught a glimpse of red hair and was surprised to see Silver standing next to Red.

"Silver?" Lyra greeted, confused. "Did we find the base already?"

"No. I lost them," Silver admitted, the words sounding choked out of him. At his words the world went silent for Lyra. She'd been keeping it together, knowing that they were following her family, that they'd see them soon. But they'd lost them. Lyra had failed. Again. She vaguely arguing and the sound of others showing up, but she couldn't focus on their words. She was too lost in despair.

She heard Red's voice and realized she was being selfish. Yes, she'd lost her family, but so had Red. He and Green had seemed much like brothers to Lyra, despite the difference in status. And Silver, he'd lost Blue. He must be feeling awful as well. Lyra was disappointed in herself for despairing. Her people were capable and they'd be fine. She had to believe that. And they would be waiting for her to find them. With these thoughts Lyra began listening to the conversation again to hear the others talking about the slavers teleporting themselves and the prisoners away.

"We have to find them," Lyra said cutting off the arguing.

"Of course we do," White agreed. "But how do we do that? They vanished."

"I may be of some assistance in locating your friends," Platina said. She held up her left hand and Lyra, who was standing right beside her, got a good look at the rings she was wearing on that hand. She had three, one Lyra recognized as bearing the seal of her house and one was a coming of age ring, but the third, it was something different. When Lyra focused on it she could sense power coming from it. She recognized it as being the same kind of power she sensed from her tarot cards.

"That ring, what is it?" Lyra asked.

"It has been in my family for generations," Platina answered. "The stories passed down through my family claim it has a special power. They say it can find people. However no one has used it for generations. You may be able to though." This last comment was directed at Lyra who looked confused.

"Me? Why?" Lyra wondered.

"My ring. It is similar to your cards, is it not?" at Lyra's nod Platina continued. "I believe my ring works in a similar way."

"But what if it doesn't?" Lyra asked doubtfully.

"Well there's no harm in trying is there?" Red said.

Lyra wanted to say that lots of things could go wrong. For all they knew if someone without Berlitz blood tried to use it, it would explode and leave them all standing in a crater. But all Lyra said was, "Okay, I'll try it." Platina slipped the ring off of her finger and placed in Lyra's outstretched hand. Lyra closed her hand around the ring and brought it to her chest, closing her eyes. She used her cards by thinking about a person and in return the cards told her something about their nature or about their future. So Lyra tried the same thing and thought about the other gypsies. A few moments of this and she felt no reaction, so she tried being more specific and thought only of Iris, the youngest gypsy and the one Lyra was most worried about. Lyra had just begun to give up when she heard a gasp. Her eyes snapped open and she looked down at the ring in her hands and saw a faint trail of light, so thin it looked to be a thread lost on the wind, leading away from the ring and continuing on down the path they had been traveling.

White gingerly tried to touch the thread, but her hand simply passed through it. "It's beautiful," White said, awed.

"I've never seen anything like it," Black added. He was staring at the thread as if its secrets would be revealed if he just stared hard enough. Which maybe was possible for someone like Black, Lyra supposed. Lyra was by no means a stupid person, but Black, he thought on a completely different level to anyone she'd ever met.

"So the stories are true," Platina mused from beside Lyra.

"Do you want it back now?" Lyra asked offering the ring.

"No," Platina replied. "It is possible that the ring will only work for you. We should not risk anyone else handling it until we rescue the others." Lyra nodded in agreement and slipped the ring onto her finger. It felt a bit odd there, constantly emitting a slight thrum of power

"Well let's get movin' again!" Sapphire yelled. "I can drive."

"I don't mind helping her if you two are tired," Crys added, speaking to White and Black.

"I don't know how much sleep I'll be able to get after this, but I would like a break," White said thankfully. Black thanked Crys as well. With that settled, everyone returned to their wagons (they'd split into groups of about three people per wagon) and Lyra soon felt the reassuring bumping of travel as the group set off again.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

Blue and the other prisoners had been stopped when the road widened slightly into a clearing. Some of the gypsies automatically began to sit, but they were immediately straightened up by the guards. This worried Blue so she looked for the reassuring presence of Silver. She soon caught sight of him hidden in a tree. Then her vision went white.

When it returned, Silver was no longer there. Nor was the tree he'd been standing on. Instead Blue was now staring at a stone wall. She whirled around to find that everyone (except for Silver) was still present, they were simply in a different location.

"What was that?" Green said sounding startled.

"There," Agatha replied, pointing at the leader of the guards. Blue. Turned and saw that the man had three Alakazam in front of him.

"It was a teleport?" Green mused.

"The three Alakazam must have worked together to teleport us all," Iris said staring at the Pokémon with rapt attention.

"But they didn't grab Silver," Blue said. "So I guess we _will _have to rescue ourselves."

"Good thing we have plans for that then," Janine commented.

They seemed to have been teleported directly into the dungeon, because the guards left them as they were, closing the door behind them and leaving a single door guard.

For an hour or so, nothing happened other than a guard coming in with some stale bread and water. During this time, Blue, Janine, Koga, and Green began planning escape attempts. Green's contribution was mostly to nix their more ridiculous plans. One such plan involved using an ancient summoning ritual (which none of them knew, and probably didn't exist) to summon the legendary Pokémon Groudon and then commanding it to destroy the building they were in (which Green pointed out would have injured and possibly killed _them_ as well as their captors).

The group eventually came up with a serviceable, but boring (which disappointed Blue, she really did enjoy plans that were needlessly complicated if only for the challenge they represented) plan that had a high probability of success. Blue and Janine would slip their cuffs and the next time a guard came in to feed them Blue would take him down while Janine took care of their door guard. They would then release the others. At that point their plan was going to have to be improvised as they had seen very little of the building and didn't know what sort of defenses there were. But their plans ground to a halt when the next guard came in sooner than they were expecting. He wasn't carrying food or water either.

"Where is the woman named Lyra?" He asked. The prisoners looked at each other at a loss. Lyra wasn't there, but should they admit that?

Before any of them could tell the man the truth, Blue quickly spoke up, "I'm Lyra."

"What are you doing?" Green hissed at her.

"Trust me," Blue whispered back while grinning confidently. He glared in response.

"Come with me," the guard said, not noticing the quiet exchange.

Blue could feel the confused eyes of he the gypsies and the angry eyes of Green digging into her back, but she simply followed the man out. They wanted Lyra, not some random gypsy and Blue wanted to know why. Besides, she had complete confidence in herself to get out of any situation she might get herself into. This one would be no different.

* * *

><p><em>With Green<em>

Green glowered at the door Blue had gone through. Why had she done that? They would find out she wasn't Lyra and then what would they do to her? Or possibly worse, they _wouldn't_ find out who she really was and they would do whatever they had planned to do to Lyra to _Blue._ Green didn't particularly like Blue (or so he told himself), but he didn't overly _dis_like her either. And the only reason she was here was to help him (and possibly steal from slavers) so Green felt he owed it to her to get her out of this.

"Forget the plan, let's just rush the guard," Green said to Janine.

"We need the door to open," Janine replied.

"I can get him to open it," Iris said confidently.

Janine stared at her for a moment, then seemed to accept her words. "Do it," Janine commanded as she fiddled with her cuffs. In the time it took Iris to move from their position to the cell door, Janine had freed herself. Green was grudgingly impressed, as he'd been trying to remove his with little success ever since they'd been put on him.

"Excuse me," Iris said to the guard. "I'm really thirsty is there any water?" Her eyes practically glittered and Green could almost see the sad manga background behind her. Janine slipped past Green followed by Koga, who had slipped his cuffs as well.

"Shut up kid," the guard replied.

At this Iris began crying. Actually crying is an understatement. She _bawled _like the world was ending and nothing happy would ever happen again. Green, who prided himself on maintaining a featureless mask and _knew _the tears were fake, actually felt worried for the girl. The guard seemed similarly effected as he began begging her not to cry. Iris refused to stop and eventually he opened the gate. He was then taken down by twin punches from Janine and Koga.

Iris immediately stopped crying and began giggling. "We got him!" She exclaimed. Green wondered how he met these weird people and longed for home where the people were normal. Well for the most part anyway.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

The guard led her through the building and into another empty room. This one was brighter than the dungeon because of the windows, but it was clear that the building was not often used. Blue wasn't entirely sure what was going on. This didn't seem like the place to take anything of value, especially not when the cargo was human beings who could escape. They had barely any guards and there didn't seem to be anything else stopping them from leaving.

Inside the room was a man with blue hair. He was wearing a white uniform with a giant red 'R' on the shirt leaving little doubt as to who the man worked for.

"Lyra," greeted the man in the room as he waved the guard outside. "I'm sorry we have to meet in such unfortunate circumstances. My name is James." Blue's first impression was that James was incompetent. So were her second and third. She couldn't see any reason why she would be delivered to him. There was no way he was a leader.

"What do you want from me?" Blue asked.

"To answer that, I'll have to tell you a story," James replied.

_Oh man...he's going to monologue,_ Blue thought.

"A long, long time ago there was a race of people who could see the future. They were called the seers. They lived for many years..." This went on for several minutes and Blue spaced out, spending the time counting the ceiling tiles. She knew this story anyway, the seers foresaw the end of their civilizations but could do nothing to prevent it. Then the five kingdoms formed. Blue began listening again in as he finished describing the rise of Unova.

"What many people don't know," he continued. "Is that the seer kingdom left something behind when it was destroyed. Six artifacts." Now this was something Blue hadn't heard before. "Each artifact has some special power and Team Rocket is working to obtain them all. So I need your artifact. I'm going to make the boss finally see my potential!"

_Oh, _Blue realized. _He _is _incompetent. He's hoping to leverage the artifact for a promotion._

"I don't have an artifact," Blue said.

"Don't lie!" James yelled. This annoyed Blue a little as it was one of the few times in her life when she really _wasn't _lying. "I know you have the tarot cards!"

"I don't have them with me," Blue replied. She needed to get out of this situation. James and his followers were completely useless, but Team Rocket was not. It was likely they had been informed and were coming so she had to get out before then or escaping would become almost impossible (Blue refused to admit anything was every actually impossible).

Blue couldn't come up with an elegant solution quickly enough, so she went with her first instinct. Her fist snapped out and she punched James in the face. He looked shocked and stumbled into a crouch, holding his cheek. Blue winced slightly at the impact, but she wasn't done yet. She kicked him this time, slamming him into the ground and rendering him unconscious.

Blue sighed a bit at the violence. She preferred trickery and sneaking to physical combat, but she had to admit brute force had its uses.

Now that she was free, she snuck out of the room (there wasn't even a guard outside) and began her hunt to find her way back to the others.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you to everyone who read this! Please tell me if anyone is still interested in reading this and I'll put up another chapter soon!<strong>


	9. Of Flights and Friends

**Author's Note:**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited and followed, it's nice to know people are reading this :) I really hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**(Also in regards to James last chapter, I was writing and needed an incompetent Team Rocket member and it occurred to me that there already was one in canon).**

_**Italics **_**= thoughts**

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: Of Flights and Friends<p>

* * *

><p><em>With Green<em>

Green and the gypsies had escaped their jail cell and were now on the lookout for Blue. So far the door guard was the only other soul the group had encountered. If this place was a high security facility, which it would have to be if this was the place Green's family was being held, there would have been a lot more guards. Green realized with a heavy heart, that this meant that it was almost certain his family wasn't there. They had done a quick sweep of the jail cell and they were rewarded with their things, but no other prisoners were there. Green pushed his family from his mind - they weren't here and he couldn't help them. But Blue was here. As if thinking of her summoned her (which maybe it did, Green wasn't entirely sure the girl wasn't a demon) she walked out of hallway and turned to greet them.

"Blue?" He said surprised.

"Green!" She replied. "We need to get out of here."

"Obviously," Green said irritably.

"I saw a door over here," Blue said, ignoring his sarcasm.

"What did they want with you - er I mean - with Lyra?" Janine asked.

"Apparently Team Rocket is collecting magical items and Lyra has one," Blue replied. They made their way to the door with little incident though Green did see two guards who had already been knocked out - presumably by Blue. They exited the building and found themselves in some sort of valley.

"Where are we?" Green asked. He turned as he asked and saw the building. It was as he expected, a large stone warehouse that appeared completely deserted from the outside (which was fairly close to the truth).

"I think we're still in Johto," Agatha said. "A teleport couldn't have taken us too far away."

_And that's why they didn't teleport us straight from Goldenrod_, Green realized. _Wherever this place is it must be out of range._

"This warehouse is not a main base of operations," Blue said. "I met with the leader there and he was just a grunt. His plan was not part of the leader of Team Rocket's plan. It sounded like he wanted Lyra's artifact to get a promotion."

"I imagine he's not going to get that promotion" Janine mused.

"Unlikely," Falkner agreed. The first thing he had said in Green's presence which dispelled his earlier theory that the man couldn't talk.

"We still need to find my family," Green said. "They're not being kept here but Team Rocket probably has them."

"If we stay here we'll get caught," Blue said. "Normally that wouldn't bother me but if they send us to a real Rocket prison it will be hard for us to get out. Even with my help."

Janine nodded in agreement. "We should get ourselves away first. We can find their base some other way."

Green reluctantly agreed and followed as the group randomly picked a direction. They didn't travel on the road, assuming that Rocket would, so they cut through the trees. Unfortunately they had no idea where they were, but getting away was their first priority so they continued onward.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

An hour or so later the trees became less dense and they found themselves at the edge of the forest and could see just on the horizon the sun glittering on rooftops.

"A town!" Iris exclaimed running toward it.

"Iris!" Janine yelled as she took off after the girl. The others followed after.

It still took the gypsies (plus Blue and Green) about an hour to get to the town (Iris stopped running about ten minutes in). They had finally reached it though and Blue was looking forward to sleeping on something softer than stone. The jail cell was not a nice place for a nap (though she had forced Green to be her pillow so it wasn't too bad). But Blue doubted a town of this size would have enough beds for all the gypsies so they would probably have to sleep outside. But even dirt would be a step up.

"We should buy food," Agatha (though Blue still thought her name was 'Batty') suggested. "We haven't eaten anything but stale bread in a few days.

"Good idea," Janine agreed. "I don't have much money though. All I had on me when they attacked were a few coppers." She produced the coins and the small copper circles glinted in the sunlight.

"I can pay," Green offered. He held up a gold coin and the others gasped a bit. Gold coins were extremely rare (though not to Green as he was a prince, and not to Blue as she was a thief) and the gypsies had probably not seen one used on something as mundane as food before. It wasn't entirely uncommon for a peasant to have an amount of money that was worth over a gold coin, but gold coins were impractical so their money was stored in silvers and coppers. The gypsies accepted Green's charity, but promised that they would pay him back later.

Green and Koga went to the market stalls to acquire food (Koga going along to make sure Green wasn't swindled) while Blue and the others looked into lodgings. There were about twenty gypsies (but Blue never bothered to get an exact count) and there were only two open rooms in the inn. After a lot of begging and some of Iris's tears the man offered to let them all stay in the barn. Hay was better than dirt (knowledge Blue had first hand) so the gypsies gratefully accepted.

Green and Koga returned and everyone convened in the barn. "We have to decide what to do next," Janine said.

"We have to find Lyra," Iris said.

"We don't know where she is," Falkner countered.

"I still need to find my family," Green added.

"They're probably being kept somewhere by Team Rocket," Blue said. "And they're after Lyra as well."

"So you think we should go after Team Rocket?" Janine asked. "We don't have any supplies and most of us don't even have our Pokémon with us."

"What else can we do?" Blue asked. "Even if we go back to Goldenrod everyone will have left. They were following us, but after the teleport they'd have lost us."

"Blue's right" Green said (though it was grudging). "We have no idea where Lyra is now. We know Team Rocket is after her and we know the location of one of their. warehouses. If it's true it was an unsanctioned operation, someone from the upper tier of Team Rocket will probably come to investigate. We can follow that person back to their main base."

Janine considered this then replied, "Fine. But not all of us are going. It's too dangerous for Iris (which drew an indignant "Hey!" from the girl) and if there are fewer of us it's less likely we'll be noticed. Falkner, Koga and I will go. Agatha, you lead the others into Kanto. With your blessing they should be cared for, right?" Janine asked this of Green.

"Yes," Green replied. "I can write a letter that will ensure they will be accepted in Kanto."

"Good. Then Agatha, you will all wait for us to return in Cerulean City. When we come back, we'll have Lyra with us."

"Will they be able to get all the way to Cerulean City without us?" Blue asked, a bit concerned.

"They're gypsies," Janine replied. "We live our lives on the road, getting to Cerulean will be easy for them. Even without the wagons."

Green was writing on a piece of paper which he then handed to Janine along with a gold coin. "This letter will give them safe passage in Kanto and the gold will ease their way."

"Thank you," Janine said. "We will repay you later."

"You are helping find my family. That's more valuable than gold," Green said.

This sounded annoyingly cool to Blue, so she decided to say something. "Easy for you to say," Blue mocked. "You have a ton of gold."

"As the treasurer I guess you'd know," Green replied. Blue was baffled for a second, then realized he was referring to the ruse she'd used when they first met and he found her in the treasure room._ Is he bantering with me?_ Blue wondered confused. Usually all she got from him was silence or short remarks. Blue supposed he was in a good mood and decided to examine it later.

"We'll return to the Rocket warehouse tomorrow," Janine said. "So you'd both better rest."

Blue nodded and found the fluffiest looking hay bale and flopped on it. She knew things wouldn't go as planned (they never did) but at least Green was here with her. And his presence was comforting in a way no one else's had really been before (other than Silver, but he was family). Eventually Blue drifted to sleep, Green's curious behavior on her mind.

* * *

><p><em>With Platina<em>

The group had been traveling for several hours when they decided it was time for a break. The forest had turned to plains, so they pulled the wagons off the road and stopped in a grassy meadow. Everyone had gotten out and they were sitting together in the grass. Platina found this to be very dirty and was extremely reluctant but Pearl convinced her by claiming it was an experience that would help her connect to commoners. Platina doubted the truth of those words but felt that they might be true anyway, so she had eventually sat with the others (though she sat on a blanket so her dress wouldn't get dirty).

"We have a problem," Lyra said.

"What?" Silver grumbled.

"This is the last of the food," Lyra said, gesturing at half a loaf of bread and a few apples.

"This is all of it?" Crys said. "How were you all surviving off this little food?"

"We were hoping to resupply soon. And I think when everyone was gone the Tauros and Bouffalant ate some of our stores."

"I thought you said these things were well trained," Gold accused.

"They're not usually left completely alone," Lyra explained. "They probably got nervous and needed comfort food."

"The how of it does not matter," Platina cut in. "We must find more supplies."

"She's right," Red agreed. "Does anyone know the nearest town?"

"Yes," Lyra said. "There's a small town a few miles to the east."

"Well let's go there then," Sapphire said. She got up as if to leave but Ruby grabbed her arm. "We still need to let the Pokémon rest," he said. Sapphire shook his arm off and glared at him, then sat down again sulkily.

"I'm hungry," she grumbled.

* * *

><p><em>About an hour later<em>

The group was finally nearing the town Lyra had mentioned. Platina was immensely relieved. Traveling in a bunch of wagons pulled by such inelegant Pokémon was hardly what she was used to. Dia and Pearl seemed to be fitting in quite easily though, a fact which oddly bothered her. She wasn't upset that they were happy but supposed she was slightly jealous at their ease of fitting in. This upset her as a lady of her standing shouldn't be subject to such petty feelings. In an attempt to ignore these feelings she had been subtly avoiding her two guards which so far seemed to have gone unnoticed.

Platina was determined to talk with some of the other members. If she could get along better, maybe she would stop feeling that jealousy and the uneasiness it caused her. So when Lyra asked who wanted to come to get supplies with her, Platina volunteered.

"We'll come too then," Pearl immediately said.

"No," Platina refuted. "We can't bring too many people, it will draw attention."

Yellow, who had volunteered earlier, offered, "I could stay here and one of them could go."

"Thank you Yellow. But you would draw less attention than either of them would."

"She's right," Lyra agreed. She gestured at Yellows outfit (simple breeches and a tunic, simple commoner wear. The only odd thing being that a woman was wearing them, but not so odd as to be remarkable) "Her clothes will fit in much more that yours." Dia and Pearl were wearing the armor Platina's father had gifted them and there was no hiding the quality and price of the items.

"But we're supposed to protect Lady," Dia complained.

"I will be fine," Platina assured.

"Aren't her clothes a bit flashy as well?" Red asked, looking at Platina's outfit which was a fine traveling dress.

"Yeah but there are a lot of commoner women who dress that way to seem like nobility," Lyra replied. "It won't stand out as much as armor would."

Platina was relived as she was briefly worried Lyra would make her change into one of the gypsy outfits she had seen in the wagons. Platina was wearing a dark blue traveling dress (that was admittedly high quality) and she was loathe to leave it for something that looked like a child's drawing of a rainbow. Any suggestions to change would also bring light to Platinsa's rather weak excuse for her guards not to go. Changing clothes was hardly a difficult task and Platina was rather grateful that Lyra had seemed to go along with her excuse. Or maybe she truly hadn't realized the excuse for what it was

"This is a small town but they have a trading post so we shouldn't draw too much attention," Lyra said. Platina's ring was still on Lyra's hand, but the magical thread was gone. Lyra claimed she hadn't sent it away on purpose, so maybe it had simply sensed that it would be in the way at the current moment. Platina wasn't sure. The thread had already changed colors earlier, as it was a faint white when it had first appeared at night but had gradually changed to a soft blue that was still visible in the day. The whole thing bothered Platina a bit, as her people, as well as the people of most kingdoms, had grown up distrusting and disliking magic. She wasn't entirely sure where this hatred had come from, but it left her suspicious of the ring. And a bit suspicious of Lyra, the girl who could use it. Despite her suspicions, Platina vowed to herself to speak with Yellow and Lyra on their trip and get to know them better. They may not become instant friends, but she had to start somewhere.

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

Lyra had told him to stay behind, but Silver had no intention of listening to her. She was currently holding the only thing that could lead him to Blue and so he wasn't letting it, or her, out of his sight. The others didn't pay much attention to him, so he simply slipped off and shadowed the trio. It wasn't until a Pidgey flew right past him that one of the girls looked up. It was Yellow. She stared at him and he stared at her. He put a finger to his lips and tried to convey a threatening aura with his eyes. It seemed to work as the girl went slightly pale and followed the others pretending she hadn't seen anything. Silver wondered how the girl had seen her. She was certainly not adept at detecting people, she had been caught by surprise many times. But Silver decided he didn't much care. Yellow could keep her secrets. As long as they didn't come between him and finding Blue, he didn't care what they were.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra<em>

Lyra had been quite surprised that Platina volunteered. She didn't seem like the type to want to mingle with "commoners." But Lyra supposed that maybe she'd been unfair in her judgment of her. Lyra had had several bad experiences with rich people (the most recent one being Lance) and Platina's general demeanor didn't help. However, Lyra did not consider herself a prejudiced person and so she was determined to get to know Platina better and not unfairly judge her based on her wealth and status.

Lyra was so focused on thinking of a good conversation starter that she didn't notice the person walking towards them. If she had, she would have noticed that he didn't quite fit in with the town. His clothes were black (which was uncommon in Johto due to the heat of the area) and his eyes stared at Platina in a predatory way. Yellow stopped abruptly, but Lyra didn't notice until she said, "He seems bad."

As if this was some kind of signal, the man suddenly rushed towards them. He pulled out a dagger and swung it at Platina, who ducked out of the way and reached for her Poké Balls. Lyra reached for her own belt and threw one of her Poké Balls releasing her Marill, Bubbles, in a flash of red light.

The strange man was evidently ready for this, as a Zubat Lyra hadn't noticed swooped down to harass Bubbles.

The man grabbed a hold of Platina's hand, stopping her from reaching her Pokémon. He seemed to examine her rings before dropping that hand and grabbing her other one. As he looked at the rings on that hand Lyra felt a sudden chill. She had no idea how he knew, but he must have been looking for Platina's ring, the one Lyra was currently wearing.

"Where is it?" The man yelled at Platina. Yellow suddenly lunged at Platina, grabbing one of the girl's Poké Balls and releasing the creature inside. A Ponyta appeared and it appeared quite angry at the man and immediately sent a Flamethrower at him. The man jumped backwards and sent out a Stunky.

_A Stunky and a Zubat,_ Lyra mused. _This man must be a part of Team Rocket or one of the other crime groups._ Her other musings (like why so many poison Pokémon? Don't they know there are types other than poison?) would have to wait till later. Her Marill was still fighting the Zubat and Lyra pointed it yelling, "Use Bubblebeam!"

Bubbles squeaked in agreement and sent a wave of bubbles at the bat Pokémon, fainting it. Unfortunately, when Lyra had pointed at the Zubat, she had given the man a good look at her hand and, more importantly, the ring on it.

"You have it!" He yelled. The man lunged at Lyra this time, but a Murkrow dropped out of the sky grabbing the man's shirt and pulling him away. This was followed by Silver appearing seemingly out of nowhere in front of her.

Silver's Murkrow held the man in its claws keeping him just above the ground. During this Platina's Ponyta finished off the Stunky who now laid in the grass completely knocked out.

"Who are you?" Silver demanded of the man.

The man glared but didn't respond. His attempts at creating a dark atmosphere were hindered by the comical image a bird half his size keeping him from the ground.

Silver asked more questions but the man remained silent. Just as Lyra was worried Silver was going to get violent, someone grabbed her hand and ripped the ring off.

"Hey!" Lyra yelled, spinning around but she was tackled by a Purrloin.

She caught a glimpse of the man as she fell and, judging by his attire, assumed he was with the man they had captured. The free man ran followed by Silver who called his Murkrow (who dropped the man it had been carrying) and chased after the other man. Platina's Ponyta made quick work of the Purrloin (the grunts' seemed to use the Pokemon as distractions as opposed to actual fighters) and Yellow rushed cover to Lyra to help her up. "Are you okay?" She asked.

Lyra nodded, "But he got the ring."

"Should we follow?" Platina asked.

"They have too much of a head start now," Lyra said. "Besides Silver probably has more of a chance of success by himself."

The man they'd captured began slipping away, but Platina's Ponyta sent an Ember attack at him which made him stop.

"What do we do with him?" Yellow asked.

"Take him to the local guard I guess," Lyra replied. "I doubt he's going to tell us anything. If was going to, he'd have told Silver."

"He will not," Platina confirmed. "He is a member of a group called Team Galactic. They do not tell their minions enough information to be useful anyway."

"Team Galactic?" Yellow said. "I've never heard of them."

"They are a crime organization in Sinnoh," Platina explained. "It is odd for one of their soldiers to be in Johto."

"Well let's bring him in," Lyra said. The three slung the man (still slightly dazed from the fall) over the Ponyta's back and headed for the guard station.

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

Yellow was feeling quite terrible. All of the grunt's Pokémon were a bit unhappy. They weren't bad and they didn't like hurting people but their trainer was and despite everything they loved him. They didn't, however, love Team Rocket and so they told Yellow all they knew. In truth it wasn't all that much information and what there was Yellow understood very little of. But the reason why Yellow was upset with herself was because she hadn't told Lyra or Platina about what she knew. If she were to do that, Yellow would have to tell them about her powers.

Every time the truth about Yellow had come out, things had gone badly. Yellow had lost count of the number of times people had tried to burn her for being a witch. She had learned to live with one rule - never let anyone find out about her powers. This was what led Yellow to becoming a "stableboy" in Viridian City. The city was large enough that she could easily be forgotten unlike small towns where everyone knew everyone else. The position itself was perfect for her. Men were never accused of being witches (sometimes they were accused of being wizards, but such occurrences were extremely rare) and she got to spend her days caring for Pokemon which is what Yellow loved the most. It was a happy life and she longed to return, but it was selfish of her not to share information because of her fear. Though even if she did tell someone, it was possible they wouldn't believe her anyway.

What the Pokémon had told her was quite vague, something about the crime teams working together to gather ancient artifacts. What she dies understand was that they were close to gathering them all, and that was bad. The Purrloin had said that one of the artifacts they had yet to obtain was in the possession of Steven Stone of Hoenn. Yellow felt someone should warn the man about the danger he was in and that she should be the one to do that. But the group still had to find Blue and Green so there was no way they could go swanning off to Hoenn. If she could even come up with a reasonable excuse for doing that.

Yellow supposed she could go by herself but she felt bad about leaving Blue to her fate. She'd only known the girl a few days, but Blue had been nice to Yellow.

Some of her concern must have shown on her face because Lyra asked her, "Are you alright Yellow? You look worried." Yellow liked Lyra, she seemed to be a nice and strong person. She was also capable if using magical artifacts and seemed to hold no fear of them. Of all the people in the group, Yellow thought. She'd probably be the least likely to judge her.

"I'm, I'm okay," Yellow assured unconvincingly. Their arrival at the guard station prevented further conversation though Platina and Lyra both gave her concerned glances. The two seemed to share some sort of mental conversation and come to some sort of agreement.

"I will bring the man in," Platina offered. "It is pointless for us all to go inside."

Lyra turned to Yellow. "Is something wrong? You've had a panicked look on your face since the fight. He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No," Yellow replied. "It's just..."

"Just...?" Lyra prompted when Yellow didn't continue.

"I can understand Pokémon," Yellow blurted.

"What?" Lyra said, her voice sounding amused.

"Really!" Yellow said. "I can also heal them, but that's not the point. The man earlier – his Pokémon spoke to me."

It didn't look like Lyra quite believed Yellow, but she wasn't dismissing her out of hand either. "What did they say to you?"

"They said that their trainers' bosses are gathering artifacts. There are six of them and they already have three."

"Then the three they don't have - Platina's ring, my cards and…what's the last one?"

"Something that belongs to Steven Stone of Hoenn." Yellow caught sight of Platina leaving the station. "Please don't tell anyone about me," Yellow begged.

"I won't tell anyone. Thank you for trusting me. We'll think of a way to tell the others without giving you away." Yellow sagged in relief, fighting back tears. No one had ever accepted her like that before. She allowed herself to dream for a second that the others would accept her as easily, but the dream shattered and she remembered her past experiences. There was no way the others would accept her. They would have been brought up to hate her.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra<em>

Lyra wasn't sure if she believed Yellow or not. On the one hand, she'd heard stories about the artifacts left by the seers, so Yellow's story was plausible. On the other, Lyra had never heard of anyone able to understand Pokémon before. And if it was true Yellow could? Well Lyra understood why Yellow would be wary of telling the others. Yellow certainly wasn't the traditional image of a witch. They were generally considered to be ugly (or extremely beautiful depending) and capable of lighting things on fire with their eyes or causing natural disasters when they sneezed. Yellow was certainly not capable of either of those things which made Lyra think that maybe she wasn't a witch after all, just someone special. Though it was completely possible and in fact very likely that the stories Lyra had heard growing up were exaggerated or completely made up. Either way, Lyra didn't see Yellow as a threat. She had grown up with the gypsies living under one rule - no one should be hated because of what they are. Because of their actions, certainly, but because of the way they were born? No one should be hated for that. So Lyra decided to help Yellow knowing the girl had probably had some bad experiences.

* * *

><p><em>With Platina<em>

It seemed that Yellow had cheered up a bit. Platina had thought the girl might be more willing to speak up with only Lyra around and it seemed her thoughts were correct. Platina felt that maybe she should be bothered not to have been confided in, but she wasn't. She had very little experience in dealing with people and absolutely none with cheering people up. Dia and Pearl always cheered each other up and Platina as well, so helping people deal with emotions was not something Platina was cut out for. She did still want to get closer to the two other girls though, so she dedicated the rest of their trip to this.

By the time the three had bought all the supplies they needed, Platina had successfully held two long conversations with the others (one about food and the other about what legendary Pokemon they would most like to meet) and Platina was feeling quite satisfied. She wasn't sure if they could be considered "friends" yet or not. No one had ever told Platina the empirical measure of a "friend." It was something Platina was looking forward to finding out. The book she'd purchased (while Yellow and Lyra were busy elsewhere) entitled "The Art of Friendship" would hopefully answer any questions she had.

The three walked back to the wagons, their purchases hanging on Ponyta's back.

The sight of her beloved Pokemon reminded Platina of a question she'd had earlier. "Yellow," she began. The other girl tensed. _Something to do with her conversation with Lyra?_ Platina wondered. "In the battle, why did you send out Ponyta instead of one of your own Pokemon?"

Yellow instantly relaxed and laughed sounding a bit embarrassed. "Both of my Pokemon are really weak," Yellow admitted. "I thought that your Pokemon would be stronger."

"Do you need tips on training your Pokemon?" Lyra asked.

"I could offer assistance as well," Platina added.

"Yeah, that would be helpful. Thanks," Yellow replied and so the three continued back while trading training tips.

* * *

><p><em>With Gold<em>

It was finally time. Gold cackled gleefully as he got to work. The crazy brown haired lady (known to others as Lyra) was gone so Gold could get a look at her fancy fortune telling cards. She'd left her cards in the wagon she, Platina, and Sapphire had been sleeping in. Platina was with Lyra and Sapphire was off arguing with Ruby somewhere, so the coast was clear. Of course, Gold could have simply asked Lyra if he could look at them, but he didn't like asking for permission. Plus he wanted to prove he was as sneaky as the annoying Silver guy (he wasn't). Gold jumped into the wagon in what he thought was a sneaky way, but truthfully was obvious to everyone around.

Inside the wagon Gold found a bag of what looked like Lyra's things. The card box was helpfully sitting right on top so Gold grabbed it. Gold had never gotten a good look at the box before, focused as he normally was on the cards, but with the box now in his hands he found that the box was a very fine object in and of itself. The box was made of some sort of metal and had been painted in several bright colors. There were places that the paint had chipped off and another layer of paint, much older and faded, could be seen.

After his cursory examination of the box, Gold opened the lid and reached inside for the cards. His fingers met with nothing but the box itself. Confused, Gold flipped the box over and shook it. Nothing came out. He flipped it again and stared inside. Nothing.

_Did she take the cards with her?_ Gold wondered. But that made no sense – if she took the cards why leave the box?

His musings were abruptly halted by someone smacking the back of his head. "Gold!" yelled the girl Gold referred to as 'Super Serious Gal' (but others called Crys). "Are you looking through Lyra's things? Pervert!"

"I'm just looking at the cards!" Gold defended, putting the box between him and Crys as a defensive maneuver (though at its size it was an ineffective shield).

"There's nothing in here," Crys said looking at the box.

"I know! Weird isn't it?"

"What are you two doing?" Black asked peering in from outside the wagon. Crys and Gold both turned to look at him.

"There are no cards," Gold said. Somehow this incomprehensible sentence made sense to Black.

"Is that the box to Lyra's cards?" Black asked as he entered the wagon and took the box from Crys.

"Yep."

Black examined the box. "This is extremely old," Black said. "It occurred to me when she mention it and again when Platina was talking about her ring. I think the cards and the ring are both artifacts from the ancient kingdom."

"The seer kingdom?" Crys asked. Black nodded.

"The artifacts are clearly magical and no one makes things like that now. The artifacts themselves aren't illegal, but the creation of them is, and judging from the age of this, Platina's ring and Lyra's cards must be from the old civilization. Though I think it's actually a bit inaccurate to say the _cards_ are the artifact. It's the box."

"What?" Gold said. "It's just a box."

Black stared at the box then reached inside and pulled out a single card.

Gold jumped and pointed at him, "He's a demon!"

"Don't be ridiculous Gold," Crys scolded. "…But how did you do that?"

"The box itself is magical," Black explained. "Anyone should be able to use it, they just need to know how."

Black looked at the card, which instead of being a card with a title and an obscure, mystical-seeming picture on it, was a card with a word and a definition. _Curious – eager to know or learn something._

"Curious," Gold said. "What does that mean?"

"I imagine it means Black was curious when he reached for a card," Crys replied. "How did you get it to work?"

"I asked Lyra how she used them before and she said she just thought of people and the cards told her things. I can get it to work, but I think Lyra's sort of...bonded to the box. So while others can use it, it will work best for her until someone else bonds with it."

"She's bonded to a box? That's really strange," Gold said.

"I don't know how else to explain it," Black said. "There aren't many books on magic so it's difficult for me to make any sure conclusions."

Crys looked at the card in Black's hand and mused, "This looks a lot different from when Lyra uses them."

"They respond to the users thoughts. The cards aren't actually real either. They're illusions created by the box." Black demonstrated this by tearing the card, which then turned white and faded in a cloud of sparkling lights.

"Pretty," Crys said.

The group was startled by a shout of "Wait!" Black threw Lyra's box to Gold who put it back in her bag and the three ran towards the sound.

* * *

><p><em>A few minutes earlier<em>

_With Sapphire_

Sapphire was really angry at Ruby, though, that was hardly uncommon. They'd known each other for a fairly short time and the two had yet to agree on much of anything. Other than how much they hated each other. Usually one of the other members of the group would get in the middle and try to get the two to get along (with no success). This time the poor soul doing so was Red (while Emerald watched and laughed at the futility).

"Please stop fighting," Red begged. Even Red, strong and cheerful in the face of any hardship had been brought down by the incessant fighting. Sapphire felt a bit guilty about this, but her guilt in no way overshadowed her intense hatred of Ruby so she ignored it.

"He keeps tryin' ta get me ta dress fancy and talk like a _lady_," Sapphire snapped.

"She's a barbarian!" Ruby exclaimed. "And she keeps trying to get me to rub dirt on my clothes!"

"They're too frilly!" Sapphire complained.

"You two are very different people," Red said calmly though there was an edge of desperation to his tone. "You should accept and appreciate each other's differences."

"That's idiotic!" Sapphire and Ruby both yelled at Red. Red sighed and looked hopefully at Emerald who sent him a 'you're on your own' look.

The tense atmosphere between Sapphire and Ruby was abruptly broken by a man in a black outfit running between them. He was then followed by a boy with red hair and a Murkrow.

"Was that…?" Red started.

"Silver!" Emerald finished.

Sapphire grabbed the Poké Ball containing Pilo and yelled, "After him!"

Sapphire jumped on Pilo as the Tropius began its takeoff. Ruby, caught in the gusts of wind created by the Pokémon, stumbled and grabbed onto the nearest surface for support. This happened to be Pilo. So when the Pokémon took off it dragged the hapless Ruby with it.

Sapphire faintly heard Red yelling, "Wait!" as she took off and caught a glimpse of the others coming out to see what was happening. Then she glanced downwards and saw Ruby.

"What are you doing?" Sapphire barked at Ruby who was clinging to Pilo's leg for dear life. The very sight disgusted her. Despite what Sapphire had said before, she knew it was likely Ruby was the same as her hero Ruby. There were too many similarities for her to be sure he wasn't, but even if they physically were the same person – people change. And her hero would never have clung to anything that stupidly. So Sapphire decided to pretend he was someone else, that way her hero could continue being amazing and Ruby could continue to be pathetic.

"Trying not to die!" Ruby yelled back.

Sapphire sighed, realizing that dropping Ruby would mean killing him, and unlike most of the group, she was actually kind of fond of their arguments. It was never boring at least. "Get up here," she said extending her hand.

Ruby looked at her dubiously, then removed one hand from Pilo's leg and grasped Sapphire's hand. A small warmth filled her at the contact (his hands are warm) but she crushed the feeling. Ruby was her enemy. Nothing more. Ruby swung up behind her and Sapphire continued to ignore the warm feeling which had spread to her back where she could feel him clinging to her for dear life. _This is going to be a long flight_, Sapphire thought irritably.


	10. Of Tracking and Travel

**Author's Note: This one is sort of fillery I guess but I hope you enjoy it :) **

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faves or follows!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Of Tracking and Travel<p>

* * *

><p><em>With Green<em>

Something was bothering Green. That something was Blue. It wasn't so much anything she did so much as her very existence. He wasn't sure what it was about her, but he found he kept thinking about her and this bothered him greatly. She was a thief and a liar, all his thoughts about her should be focused on how awful she was, not on how soft her hair looked. _Brown and fluffy and in the wind - no! pull yourself together,_ Green chastised himself.

The girl in question was staring at him with a slightly concerned expression. "Are you all right Green?" She asked. "You look worried."

"I'm worried about my family," Green lied. He _was _worried about them of course, but they certainly were not what he'd been thinking about.

"Don't worry about it princey. We'll find them and then you'll give me a huge reward!" This comment at least helped Green reinforce why he should dislike her. She only wanted money. If Green weren't rich, she wouldn't be there and they never even would have met. Green glared at her (mostly for appearances sake) which resulted in a devious smirk.

"It's time to go," Janine announced. The gypsies had been preparing for the long journey ahead of them while Green and Blue waited off to the side. They were clearly seasoned travelers as it took them under an hour to get everything they needed together. "Good travels Agatha."

"Same to you," Agatha replied. The two clasped hands and nodded at each other. "Let's move out gypsies!"

"Are you ready?" Janine asked Green and Blue. Falkner and Koga were standing on either side of her.

"Of course!" Blue exclaimed. Green simply nodded.

"Alright. Let's go then."

Green followed Janine out of the building and back towards where they had come into town.

"Are you sure you can find the place again?" Green asked, not entirely sure who he was addressing the question to.

"I can," Blue assured. "I have quite a bit of experience memorizing escape routes."

"Never would have guessed," Green mumbled sarcastically.

"I remember the general direction as well," Janine said. "Between Blue and I we shouldn't have too much trouble."

"I can help as well," Koga protested.

"Don't worry about it Janine's dad," Blue replied. "Janine and I can handle it."

"My name is Koga," Koga corrected, though it was a token protest at this point. Green wondered it Blue actually didn't know his name, or if she was just messing with the man. He figured she was messing with him, but there was really no way to know for sure. She was too good a liar.

"This way!" Blue announced (completely ignoring Koga) and marching confidently into the woods.

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

Lyra had promised not to tell anyone and Yellow believed her, but it was still a relief when they got back to the other and Lyra didn't immediately start shouting, "She's a witch! Burn her!" or something similar. What Lyra _did_ say was, "What are they all doing?"

Yellow saw what Lyra was talking about. Their friends were standing in a group seemingly staring at the sky.

"It does seem odd," Platina agreed.

The three continued over and when their presence went unnoticed Lyra finally asked, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," White replied, still staring at the sky. "But everyone else was doing it so I thought I'd join in."

"Silver came through here," Red explained.

"And then Sapphire and Ruby went after him," Emerald added.

"On a Tropius," Gold finished.

"Was Silver chasing a man in a black outfit?" Lyra asked.

This snapped Red out of his strange daze and he finally turned to look at them. "He was. How did you know that?"

"The man attacked us," Platina replied.

"Lady, are you okay?" Dia asked concerned.

"I knew one of us should have gone with you," Pearl grumbled.

"I am well," Platina assured.

"They got Platina's ring though," Lyra said apologetically.

"Then Silver ran after him," Yellow added.

"But none of you are hurt?" Red asked, his gaze fixed on Yellow.

"We're all fine," Yellow replied. "He only wanted the ring, he didn't actually care about hurting us."

"Do you think Silver can catch up to him?" Crys asked. "Without that ring we don't know where to go again. Wait - Silver didn't go with you, what was he even doing there?"

"He followed us," Yellow answered.

"Silver will get the ring," Lyra said confidently. "But we can't sit around here waiting for them. The man who stole it was with Team Galactic and I want to know why they want that ring so desperately."

"I'd be interested in that too," Black replied. "But unless Silver comes back we don't have anyone to ask."

"Even if Silver does catch the man he wouldn't be any help," Pearl said. "The Galactic grunts are never told any useful information. They just get assignments with no reasoning. He can tell us his boss wants the ring, but not why."

"So we find someone who isn't a grunt," Gold said. "And then make him talk!"

"They're not going to have their higher ups just sitting around, Gold," Crys chastised. "Even if we _did_ manage to find one, I imagine they'd be guarded heavily."

"That is a correct assumption," Platina assured.

"What if I try a reading," Lyra said. "I may not be able to find out a why for us, but my cards may be able to give us a hint of where we we should go."

"You think that will lead us to Green and Blue?" Red asked.

"It's possible," Lyra said. Lyra glanced at Yellow and Yellow realized something. Lyra had agreed to help Yellow get to Hoenn so she could warn Steven Stone and this was her way of doing that. No one else understood the cards like Lyra did, so she could use them to explain the sudden urge to go to Sinnoh, even if the cards said something else.

* * *

><p><em>With Lyra<em>

Lyra went to her wagon and returned to the others with her box. She reached into the box thinking of her own future and pulled out a card. The card she got was a picture of Gold's face under which was written "annoyance." Lyra had seen something similar happen before when someone untrained tried to use her box. "Was someone messing with my cards?" She asked though she knew the answer was yes and Gold was the perpetrator. She was interested to see if he'd admit it.

"No!" Gold said. "Definitely not!" Lyra noted that even if she hadn't already known he was guilty, that surely would have told her he was.

"I used it," Black admitted. "Sorry."

"You did?" Lyra asked surprised.

"Yeah just once."

Lyra and her father were the only people who had ever used the box in Lyra's lifetime. Some of the other gypsies had tried, but. I one had used it successfully. Black was the first.

"Sorry for using it without your permission," Black apologized.

"I don't mind," Lyra said. "The one the box is mad at is Gold anyway. He must have done something to offend it."

"I did not!" Gold said.

"I didn't see everything, but I'm sure you did," Crys said.

"Can we get on with this?" Pearl asked impatiently.

"Ah, yes sorry." Lyra dropped the card which faded into sparkles and reached into the box, this time withdrawing a whole stack. Lyra knew the faces would be blank until she decided what she wanted to know.

_Blue_ she thought and drew a card. The card she drew had a picture of a firework on it. It was one that Lyra was familiar with, a firework that shot up so high it seemed it would never stop until it suddenly burst into hundreds of colorful flames. _It's called a - _she read the word on the card. _Rocket_.

"What's on there?" Gold asked walking over and trying to peer over his shoulder only to be stopped by Crys who dragged him back.

"Rocket," Lyra said. "Whatever Blue is doing, I think it must have something to do with Team Rocket."

"Team Rocket?" Yellow exclaimed.

"Then they are probably the ones who were buying people in Goldenrod," Black mused.

"Team Rocket is bad news. We need to find Blue and Green," Red said.

Lyra drew a card thinking of Green and received the same one. "My cards won't tell us where they are," she said. "Unless you know where to look I don't know how we'll find them."

"We can wait for Silver, Sapphire and Ruby to come back," White suggested.

"That assumes Silver _will_ come back," Gold said. "Knowing that guy it's possible he'll try to use the ring himself and go straight to Blue."

"But as far as he knows Lyra's the only one who can use it," Crys pointed out.

"Still Gold has a point, we can't base our plan on hoping Silver succeeds and comes back," Pearl said. "Blue and Green can handle themselves. What we know is that Team Galactic wants the artifacts and we have one of those. We should go take them down before they can attack us again."

Lyra drew another card wondering, what should I do next? The image was a rock and the caption was Stone. _Steven Stone,_ Lyra thought. _Just like Yellow said_.

"I think I know where we need to go next," Lyra said breaking up the discussion. "We need to go to Hoenn. Their hero is a man named Steven Stone and we need to find him."

"What? We need to go to Hoenn?" Gold asked. "Why do we to need to talk to this guy?"

"I'm not sure," Lyra said, though this was of course a lie as Yellow had told her why before. "But the cards thinking it is important and they've never lied to me before."

"But team Galactic isn't even in Hoenn!" Pearl protested.

"There have been rumors that the crime gangs from different regions have started working together," Red said. "If this is true then maybe the answer is in Hoenn."

"Are we really taking advice from a deck of cards?" Pearl asked.

"Well actually it's the box that's magical," Black corrected. "And yes, I suppose so."

"I don't have any better ideas," Crys said. "If Silver decides to come after us he won't have much trouble so we might as well get moving."

"I'm just here for the adventure anyway," Gold said. "I don't really care where we go."

"I have not been to Hoenn before and would like to see it," Platina agreed. Lyra was surprised by Platina's seeming indifference about losing the ring. But then again she hadn't balked at letting Lyra wear it either, so maybe the artifact simply didn't matter that much to her.

"So, to Hoenn?" Lyra asked. The group either agreed or shrugged indifferently, so Lyra took that as an overall yes. "Let's get on with it then!"

* * *

><p><em>With Silver<em>

The man was annoyingly fast and the Zubat he sent out to speed his retreat didn't help matters. The man grabbed onto its leg and he was suddenly outpacing Silver. Silver was about to use his Murkrow to give chase when a large shadow came over him. He glanced upward to see a Tropius. The Tropius then came crashing down, plowing into the man and his Zubat. Sapphire leaped off the Tropius followed by Ruby who sort of fell off.

"You're under arrest!" Sapphire announced to the grunt who was out cold. The side effect of being rammed by a giant Pokémon apparently.

"I don't think he can hear you," Ruby muttered.

Silver walked over to the unconscious man and searched for the ring. The man had been holding it when he fell and had dropped it in the grass. Silver picked it up.

It was an unremarkable ring for something with such power. There were no gems of any kind and it was made of silver, hardly the most precious metal. The ring had a simple pattern of swirls that ran in a circle around the band. From a purely visual examination Silver wouldn't bother to steal the ring. However there was something different about the ring. Silver knew it was because the ring was magical and noted the feeling in case he ever came across something else magical.

"That the ring?" Sapphire asked.

"Of course it is," Ruby replied.

"I was just makin' sure!"

"You don't have to ask about obvious things."

As the two began another one of their epic arguments, Silver had but one desperate wish: _I wish Blue was here._

Immediately after he thought this he felt a slight /something/ from the ring and he looked down. A tiny blue thread led away from the ring.

"You got it ta work?" Sapphire exclaimed in shock.

"Apparently," Silver replied.

Silver called his Murkrow and prepared to follow the thread. "Hey what are you doing?" Sapphire demanded, grabbing a hold of his arm. "We need to go back to the others.

"You go back," Silver said. "I'm going to find Blue." He jerked his arm out of Sapphire's grip (which was harder than it first appeared - that girl was _strong_) and commanded his Murkrow to follow the thread.

"Hey!" Silver heard Ruby yell. Silver ignored him. As he followed the thread he noticed Sapphire and Ruby pulling up alongside him. It would have been impossible for him to miss them, that Tropius was huge. He didn't care though, as long as they didn't get in his way they could do whatever they wanted.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

Blue and the others got back to the Team Rocket warehouse much more quickly as a smaller group. They were hidden in the trees now deciding on a plan of attack.

"We should go in," Green said.

"No," Blue disagreed. "We're less likely to be seen out here."

"There is a chance they've already cleared out," Koga added.

"Shh!" Janine hissed pointing at the road. Blue swiveled and saw what had drawn the other girls attention. There was a man in a Team Rocket uniform walking towards the base. Just as he was about to open the door, it opened from the inside and a blue haired male stumbled out, cradling his head. _Ha! _Blue thought. _I got him good!_

"James!" yelled the first grunt.

James dropped his hands to his side and looked up when he realized he wasn't alone. "Yes?" he said nervously.

"The boss is very angry with you. He sent this." The grunt pulled out a letter and took in a huge breath. "James! You idiot! You disobeyed by orders AND you let the gypsy woman escape! You are on guard duty at Mt. Moon until you can prove that you are not completely useless!" The grunt looked up from the paper. "End of message." He then folded it carefully and handed it to James. "I'm here to make sure you don't make more unsanctioned detours. Come on!" The grunt walked away and James followed, the perfect picture of misery.

"That's no help," Green complained. "They aren't going the right way."

"Wait," Blue said. "Who's that?" After James and the grunt had disappeared someone else approached the warehouse. He came from the woods and had probably been watching the base like Blue and the others had been. _Good thing we didn't go in,_ Blue thought. _He would have see us. _The man clearly wasn't part of Team Rocket, but there was still something off about him.

"Maybe we should follow him?" Blue suggested. The man slipped into the warehouse so Blue kept an eye on the door watching for his return.

"He wasn't dressed the same as the others," Janine said. "His outfit was all red."

"Maybe it means he's more important," Koga suggested.

"I think he's the only shot we have," Green said. "This place obviously isn't used much, if we don't follow him I don't think we'll be able to follow anyone."

"Well, let's do it then," Blue said. The others nodded and when the man reappeared, they set off after him. She wasn't sure where this man would lead them, but based on the luck they'd had so far, it wouldn't be any place nice.

* * *

><p><em>With White<em>

The course had apparently been decided on and the group was headed for Hoenn. If White was being honest with herself, she didn't really care where they went. Her whole life before this had been living and working in her father's bakery and she had always assumed that she would inherit it from him and run the bakery her whole life. Now though, the bakery was thought to be part of an assassination plot. Even if when she got back she was able to convince the law in Unova that she was innocent, the bakery would still suffer from the charges and be basically impossible to keep open.

White wasn't sure what to do. When she'd met Black he knew so much about the outside world and White had loved hearing about it, had even wanted to see the places he spoke of, but she never thought it would actually happen. And now that it had she found herself woefully unprepared. If Black weren't around she already would have been captured several times, but it couldn't continue on like this. White needed to learn to protect herself. Her future she could worry about later, after her present was secured.

Now instead of their relentless pace when hunting Blue, they decided on traveling at a a more sedate pace. They would travel during the day with a break for lunch and stopping for the night after dinner. White decided that she would train before breakfast and after dinner. White slept in the first day and didn't get a chance to start her morning regimen, but other than that nothing particularly eventful happened. They travelled along plains which seemed to go on forever, though later in the day mountains began to be visible on the horizon. Lyra had assured them that they wouldn't have to travel over them which White was grateful for.

"We're making good time," Lyra said when they stopped for the night. "We should be in Hoenn in a few days."

"Do you have all the roads memorized?" Black asked. "You always seem to know where we are."

Lyra reached into the bag she was wearing and pulled out a book. She opened it and showed it to Black. "Ah," he said. "Maps. That makes sense."

"We're about here," Lyra said pointing to one of the roads. White stared at the map and realized with amazement that she'd travelled to some of the towns on it. She'd seen maps before of course and was perfectly capable of reading them, but the only ones that had ever been relevant to her had been maps of the city. So many things about this journey sent thrills of excitement (tinged with a heavy dose of fear) through her.

White was interested in looking at the planned path, but she had already decided that she was going to train today. So she left Lyra and Black to their discussion and walked away from the group to have a bit of privacy.

"Okay Jessica," White said as she held the Pokémon's Poké Ball. She pressed the button releasing the Deerling. "Let's do this."

"Deeer," Jessica said. White assumed it was in agreement.

The Deerling stared at White in anticipation and White abruptly realized that she had no idea how to train a Pokémon .

"Uh," White said. "Go run some laps?"

Jessica stared at White with an unimpressed expression. "Well I don't know how to train a Pokémon !" White exclaimed.

"Um, I think Pokémon battles are the best way to gain experience." White spun at the voice and saw Yellow looking apologetic. "I didn't mean to interrupt," She apologized. "But I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong."

"Don't worry about it," White said. "Though I am a bit embarrassed you've seen how terrible I am at Pokémon training."

"I'm not very good either," Yellow said consolingly. "Maybe we could train together? Lyra and Platina gave me some tips earlier."

"That would be great," White said with relief. "I know Black would help but I don't want to bother him while he's busy trying to find out where the Steven Stone man lives."

"Well Lyra and Platina said that Pokémon learn best through trainer battles. So, uh, I challenge you?" Yellow said this last bit almost apologetically. The feeling White had gotten from the girl thus far was that she was a pacifist, so White wasn't overly surprised by the girl's reluctance.

"Ok, challenge accepted," White replied. If Yellow was going against her nature to learn, then so could White.

* * *

><p><em>With Platina<em>

The current mission was to find Steven Stone. Lyra seemed quite sure it was this man which Platina found a bit peculiar. Yes, Lyra had always seemed to believe full-heartedly in her cards, but they seldom gave her such specific instructions. Lyra had never shown the card to anyone though, so they were all simply taking her word for it. What if she was lying? What she would gain from that Platina wasn't sure, but she had to consider the possibility. Lyra had never seemed to be doing anything evil though, so why she would lie now was confusing. She had seemed completely committed to finding Blue earlier, but something must have changed. Platina knew she was unlikely to discover this without questioning Lyra and that was something she did not want to do. She wasn't the most tactful person and she didn't want to accuse Lyra of something if she really _was_ telling the truth. So Platina decided that the best course of action for her would be to let events unfold and see what happened next.

To this end Platina was assisting Black in his efforts to find information about Steven Stone in some of his history books (apparently when he had run for his life, he'd also brought a small library with him. Where he kept all those books and how he ran with them Platina did not know and was not certain she wanted the answer). Of all the people traveling with them, it seemed to Platina that she and Black were the most book smart people. The others had all disappeared when Black mentioned books. All except for Dia that is, but Black had forbidden him from trying to help after he dropped a sandwich on the book he was reading. So Dia sat in the corner eating the food Platina and the others had bought the day before.

"Have you found anything?" Dia asked between bites.

"Nope," Black replied.

"I have not either," Platina said.

"It's still a few days until we reach Hoenn anyway," Dia said consolingly.

"Yeah, but it would be nice to know where we need to know before we get there. Otherwise we'll have to sit and wait or just guess," Black said.

Platina took that as a queue to look harder and it seemed Black did as well. Dia remained where he was and kept an eye on them as he ate.

* * *

><p><em>With Red<em>

Red was worried about Green. He knew that Green could handle himself, and it seemed Blue could as well, but his job was to protect Green. And now Red didn't even know where he was - though apparently it was somewhere having to do with Team Rocket. Red had faced Team Rocket before and what they lacked in intelligence or skill, they more than made up for in ruthless dedication to their goals.

To take his mind off it, Red had decided to do some training with Saur and Pika. He'd only just gotten started when Gold showed up. "Let's battle!" he requested.

"Okay," Red said with a shrug.

Gold grinned and sent out an Aipom that he called Ataro. Red returned Pika and let Saur fight.

Gold it turned out was a pretty good trainer. Red was better, but Gold was definitely skilled. Saur ended the fight with a Vine Whip and Ataro fell.

Gold returned him and grinned at Red. "Nice fight," he said. "Can you help me train?"

"Ah -" Red was about to respond when he was distracted by a white light. It was coming from Saur. Saur glowed and shifted, and when the light faded, he was no longer a Bulbasaur. "You evolved!" Red exclaimed staring at the Ivysaur.

"Ivysaur!" Saur said agreeably.

"Cool!" Gold said examine the Pokémon . "Come on Red, you have to help me get my Pokémon to evolve!"

"Well I suppose we can battle more. Not today though, it's getting late," Red conceded.

"Yes!" Gold whooped and ran off towards Crys who kicked him when he snuck up on her. Red couldn't tell if those two really hated each other, or really liked each other. A relationship as confusing as that wasn't for him. With Gold gone, Red decided to spend the time with his Ivysaur and see if it had picked up any new skills.

* * *

><p><em>With Pearl<em>

Pearl was agitated. Platina had gone off without him or Dia and she had been attacked. She had told them not to go, but he should have gone anyway. Not because of duty, but because Platina was his friend. He'd noticed her being slightly off lately so he hadn't fought her as hard as he should have since it seemed she wanted time away from him and Dia. Next time he'd go, no matter her feelings on the matter. He knew Dia would too. Dia cared more for Platina than anyone else really did, including Pearl. Of course Pearl loved Platina, but he didn't love her in the same way Dia did. Pearl's love had always been that of a treasured friend of family member while Dia's was something deeper. Pearl wasn't sure if Dia consciously realized this or not and Pearl certainly wasn't going to ask. Talking about feelings was not something he particularly enjoyed.

He'd been pacing as he gathered his thoughts - walking back and forth alongside the wagon Black had turned into a research station. His pacing drew some attention.

"What are you doing?" Emerald asked. The young boy was sitting on a blanket next to Wally who was peeling an apple.

"Pacing," Pearl replied.

"I can see that, I meant _why?"_

"Then you should have asked that," Pearl grumbled. He knew it was wrong to take his anger out on someone else (especially a little kid) but Pearl wasn't thinking clearly. Also it turned out Emerald wasn't particularly bothered by people being rude to him, being a bit rude himself.

Wally, however, seemed uncomfortable with the situation. "Please stop fighting," he begged.

"He started it!" Emerald pointed at Pearl.

"That - that's true," Pearl admitted. "But you continued it!"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Emerald exclaimed.

"Yeah, well! Whatever!" With that Pearl was pretty sure he'd one that argument so he walked to the other side of the wagon (he wasn't running away, he _was not_ intimidated by a little kid).

* * *

><p><em>With Ruby<em>

Sapphire's Tropius was flying alongside Silver's Murkrow and even though they'd been going for a good while now, Ruby was still clinging to Sapphire for his life. Silver by all appearances didn't even notice they were there, though that was impossible because a flying Tropius was a major contender for the least sneaky Pokémon ever.

"Why are we following him?" Ruby asked, yelling to be heard over the wind.

"Cuz!" Sapphire replied.

"What do you mean _cuz?_"

"I wanna know where he's goin'" Sapphire elaborated.

"We should tell the others what's happening."

"You can do that. I'm followin' Silver."

Ruby decided against pointing out that there was no way for him to go anywhere stuck as he was on Sapphire's Tropius. Unfortunately he didn't have a flying Pokémon of his own. Ruby wouldn't want a Tropius anyway, it was extremely inelegant.

"I need to find Green," Sapphire said after the silence between then had gone on for several minutes.

"Green? Why?"

"I was just made a knight and my mission was ta find Green and bring him back. If somethin' happens to him now, it's because I didn' do as I was told. It would be my fault."

"It wouldn't be your fault," Ruby refuted. "You couldn't force Green to go back, he and Red would have fought you off. You did the only thing you could, nothing that happens is your fault."

Sapphire was silent for a moment (did Ruby see a hint of red on her face?), then yelled, "Why are ya being nice all of a sudden?"

"I don't know?" Ruby yelled back. "You were acting less like a barbarian!"

Just as the argument was about reach epic Sapphire and Ruby proportions Silver spoke up (for the first time since he'd taken flight), "If you can't be quiet I'll leave you behind."

"Just try it punk!" Sapphire yelled.

"Don't provoke him!" Ruby exclaimed upon seeing the truly murderous expression Silver was gazing at Sapphire with. When Sapphire opened her mouth Ruby put his hand over it. "We'll be quiet," he assured Silver. "Right Sapph?"

Sapphire glared at him, but finally nodded. She shoved Ruby's hand away from her mouth and murmured something that sounded like, "stupid sissy," but Ruby didn't engage. _Oh_ he realized suddenly. _I'm not afraid of flying anymore anymore. All it took was having something I'm afraid of more than falling to my death! _(That something being Silver and then murderous aura that seemed to follow him)

* * *

><p><em>With Green<em>

Green and the others stalked the man through the woods. The man walked on foot which surprised Green, he'd expected the man to use a Pokémon to travel more quickly. Though it was possible he was simply waiting to get out of the woods a travel Pokémon would have a hard time in the forest flying or non-flying. They exited the forest at a somewhat different location than they had the day before, but it was close enough that Green could recognize the area.

The man finally reached for his belt and grabbed one of his Poké Balls. He released the Golbat inside. _Well, the likelihood of him being a grunt of some organization just skyrocketed,_ Green thought.

"How do we follow without being seen?" Green asked.

"Like this," Blue said. She pulled something out of her bag and hurled it at the Golbat.

"Blue!" Green snapped, pulling her down into cover.

"Relax," she said. "Look."

Green cautiously lifted his head up over the bush and did so. The man was talking to the Golbat and didn't seem to notice anything had happened. Green examined the Golbat and realized what Blue had hit it with. It was a bag of some sort of coloring liquid. The bag was stuck to the Golbat's foot and slowly dripped blue liquid. By all appearances it looked as if the Pokémon had accidentally stepped on a berry. Green may have hated thieves in general, but he did have to give credit where it was due. It was brilliant. He'd never tell Blue that though.

"We just wait for him to get ahead and follow the trail!" Blue said.

"Oh I love sticky paint!" Janine exclaimed.

The two girls enthused about sticky paint (apparently the name of the paint bag thing) with the additional comment by Koga every so often while Green and Falker stared at each other, silently commenting on the other members of the group.

"Time to go!" Blue blurted abruptly, startling Green out of his non-conversation (nonversation?) with Falkner.

"Are we going on foot?" Falkner asked.

"I'm not," Blue replied and sent out her Jigglypuff. Green still had nigtmares about that thing.

Janine and Koga both sent out Crobat and Falkner sent out a Pidgeotto. This left Green as the only one without a flying Pokémon . _First thing I'm doing when I get back is evolving Charmander into a Charizard,_ Green thought.

"Come on Green, ride with me!" Blue suggested.

"Jiggly!" her Jigglypuff added.

"...fine," Green said.

"Alright!" Blue jumped on the Jigglypuff's head while Green held onto one of the legs. "Follow that trail Jiggly!"

The Jigglypuff made a happy sound and complied. _Why do I keep letting her lead me into these situations?_ Green wondered as he dangled off the leg of a Jigglypuff following a tiny trail of paint. He had a faint idea, but he didn't dare allow himself to think of it consciously. It was too ridiculous. (Maybe he liked her).


	11. Of White and Witches

Chapter 11: Of White and Witches

* * *

><p><em>With Yellow<em>

Yellow and White's intense Pokemon battle had ended up being Jessica and Dody tackling each other until both Pokemon looked worn out. Neither looked much stronger, but Yellow hoped that they'd gained some invisible strength of someone sort.

"Do you feel stronger?" White asked Jessica hopefully._ A little, _Yellow heard, though out loud it sounded like, "Deeeeer."

"What do you suppose that means?" White mumbled. Yellow bit her tongue so she wouldn't accidentally say that she knew _exactly_ what it meant.

"What are you guys doing?" Red asked walking over to the two girls.

"We were training," Yellow said. "Or trying to." Yellow then noticed the Ivysaur walking next to Red. "Wasn't he a Bulbasaur?"

"Yeah! Gold challenged me to a battle and Saur evolved!"

Red was always so enthusiastic talking about his Pokemon and Yellow enjoyed listening to it. Of all the others she found herself drawn the most to Red, but she knew nothing could ever come of it. After all, he didn't know her secret, and when he did he'd want nothing to do with her.

Yellow saw a shadow creep across the ground and looked up. White noticed and followed her gaze. "What is that?" White asked. There was something moving across the sky. It looked like a flock of birds, but on closer examination Yellow could see it was a bunch of Zubat. And they were carrying black clad people.

"Team Rocket," Red said. "You two stay here!" He yelled as he ran back towards the others, Saur hot on his heels.

"We should help!" White said.

"I want to too, but neither of us is any good at battling," Yellow pointed out. "We'd be in the way."

The two had gone aways off to train, but they could see the wagons and saw the others battling. Lyra was getting swarmed which didn't surprise Yellow. They must be after the cards, but their friends were better than the grunts and seemed to be holding their own. The two were so focused on the fight they'd didn't notice someone come up behind them. The grunt grabbed White roughly and held a blade to her neck.

"This is how it's going to go," the man said. You're going over there and getting the artifact or you friend dies."

Yellow looked into the man's eyes and saw the eyes of a killer. He would really do it. "I'll get it!" Yellow said, backing slowly towards the wagon. She didn't want to give them what they wanted, but there was no way she was letting White die. As she backed up, she saw Jessica moving. The Pokemon charged the man. Several things happened then. He dropped White, who fell and the man's hand slipped. The knife hit Jessica.

"Jessica!" White screamed.

Anger filled Yellow and she felt her power emerging. "Dody!" Yellow yelled pointing at the man. The Doduo, much stronger than it had been only seconds previously, charged the man as Yellow ran to the injured Pokemon. Jessica was bleeding a lot. Too much. The knife had gone deep.

White ran over. "Is she...is she going to be okay?"

She wasn't. Jessica wouldn't be able to heal on her own and there was no way to get medical supplies, not with the grunts everywhere. There was only one way to save her. Yellow touched Jessica gently, taking her head into her hands. Yellow channelled the healing energy she'd been born with into the injured Pokemon.

White gasped with shock as the wounds on the Pokemon disappeared before her eyes. "How did you do that?" White asked quietly. "Are you a...are you a witch?"

Was she? Yellow wasn't really sure. "Maybe," Yellow decided on.

White looked at her and in her eyes was the expression Yellow was all too familiar with. Horror. White grabbed newly healed Jessica and ran to the others leaving Yellow by herself. It seemed she always ended up that way.

* * *

><p><em>With White<em>

Yellow was a witch. This knowledge disturbed White to no end. All this time, she'd been living with a witch! She sprinted towards the wagons, because at that moment she was genuinely more afraid of Yellow than of the Team Rocket grunts.

By the time White got back to the wagons the grunts there had been defeated and were all running for their lives.

"Oh, White," Black greeted. "You alright? You seem spooked."

"I - it's - Yellow's a witch!" White blurted.

Her statement was met by silence, then several of the members burst out laughing (notably Gold and Emerald).

"She's a witch?" Gold laughed. "Good one."

"I'm serious!" White exclaimed. "Jessica - she got stabbed. And Yellow healed her!"

"What with her mind?" Crys asked skeptically.

"Yes!"

The group stared at her in varying degrees of disbelief. "Yellow can't be a witch," Gold said. "Witches are supposed to be warty and gross. Yellow's not a babe, but she isn't a hag either." This statement earned him a punch from Crys that knocked him over.

"Yellow's nice," Red said. "Even if she _is_ a witch. Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters!" Emerald said. "Witches are evil, everyone knows that!"

"It is a prevalent theme in a lot of literature," Black added.

"I'm with Red on this one," Crys said. "Nothing I've ever seen of Yellow leads me to believe she's evil. I don't care what powers she has."

"She healed your Pokemon right, so doesn't that make her a nice witch?" Dia asked.

"There are no nice witches," Pearl said. "Magic is evil and it kills things."

"_People_ kill things," Crys said. "Magic is a tool, nothing more."

"Where is Yellow anyway?" Red asked White.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I ran away."

"She's not coming back on her own," Lyra said. "If we want her with us we need to go get her."

"You seem oddly unfazed by all this," Pearl said accusingly.

"I knew," Lyra replied.

"What?" This was said by several members of the group.

"She told me when we were looking for supplies. The Pokemon told her what the crime teams are looking for."

"She can understand Pokemon too?" Emerald exclaimed.

"We need a vote," Lyra interrupted. "Is she with us, or are we leaving her behind? I'm for her staying."

"I want Yellow to stay," Red added instantly.

"She should stay," Crys agreed.

"Leave her," Emerald said.

"We don't need a witch with us," Pearl said. "Leave her."

"Leave her," White said, feeling suddenly guilty. All Yellow had done was help and now she was voting to leave her alone in the wilderness. Well, technically she'd done that already.

"Let her stay," Wally said. White wasn't sure what the boy really thought about the issue. He hadn't said anything earlier and his expression was unreadable.

"She should leave," Platina said. She looked sad and White understood how she felt. But she'd been raised to believe witches were the enemy, they all had. So if Yellow had magic she must be evil. Even if it wasn't apparent yet. That didn't stop White's guilt though.

Dia looked at Platina and Pearl with a conflicted expression and finally said, "I think she should stay." Pearl glared at him but Platina didn't seem angry.

The only two people who had yet to vote were Gold and Black. It could still go either way.

"Well?" Crys asked.

"Stay," Gold finally said.

"That's a majority," Lyra said. "I'll go get her."

"No," Red countered. "Let me. I know where she is. Or where she was anyway."

White watched Red walk towards the girl White had condemned and wondered at how much of a better person than her he was.

"We're letting her stay?" Pearl said with aggravation. "She could kill us in our sleep."

"If she were going to do that she would've already," Crys defended.

"Why are you so for this?" Emerald asked. "Red I get he's pathetically nice, but you're not! I thought you'd have more sense than to let a witch walk among us."

"People shouldn't be judged for things they can't help," Crys replied. "At the orphanage all those kids were mistreated and judged for things that they couldn't help. If Lord Elm hadn't taken you in where do you think you'd be right now?"

"That's different," Emerald snapped.

"Uh, please stop fighting," White begged.

"You're the one who brought it up in the first place," Pearl retorted.

"No, White is correct," Platina interrupted. "We have voted already and unless any of you plan to leave, we are stuck together. We should get along."

"I don't want to get along with a witch," Pearl grumbled.

"Then don't talk to her," Crys replied. "There are enough of us that you can just avoid her easily enough."

"But what if she sets me on fire?"

"She can't do that," Lyra said.

Dia and Wally watched the proceeding sadly. The group that had been getting along so well was now fracturing.

* * *

><p><em>With Red<em>

Red had been taught that witches were evil. Practically everyone in every kingdom was taught that, but he couldn't believe, not for one second, that Yellow was evil. He'd never seen her do anything even remotely mean spirited, even when she was well within her rights to (Blue _had_ kidnapped her after all). No, in the end, Red didn't care if she had magic, Yellow was a good person.

Yellow was sitting where she and White had been training earlier, staring at the ground as if it could solve her problems.

"Yellow," Red greeted gently. The girl jumped and stared at him in shock.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "White told you, didn't she? You aren't going to kill me are you?"

"What?! No I'm not going to kill you! We voted and we decided that you can keep traveling with us. If you want to that is."

"Really? I...I can stay? And you're okay with that?"

"Yeah. I don't care if you're a witch. I know you Yellow, and you're not a bad person."

Yellow's eyes became a bit misty and she suddenly stood and hugged Red. "Thank you," she said quietly into his chest.

Once Yellow seemed to have calmed down a bit Red led her back towards the wagons, all the while wondering how many people, upon discovering the truth, had completely rejected her.

"Why are you bringing me back?" Yellow asked quietly.

"Like I said, we voted and the majority decided that you being a witch didn't matter." Red understood why some people voted to leave Yellow - a prejudice one has been taught by birth is hard to overcome - but Red couldn't help but be angry with them.

"It was close wasn't it," Yellow observed. She seemed to take his silence as an affirmative. "I shouldn't go back, I'll just cause problems."

"At this point it doesn't matter. We've all picked sides, you not being there won't make things easier, but maybe it will show them that they're wrong. About you, about witches."

"...I'm not sure I actually am a witch," Yellow mused. "I can't do anything I've read witches can do. Everything I can do helps Pokemon in some way, or helps me understand them."

"So you think you're...something. else?"

"I don't know."

"Well I don't care what you are," Red declared. "I'll still like you."

Yellow blushed, but smiled.

"I like you too," Yellow replied, so quietly Red probably wasn't supposed to hear. Red grinned which went unnoticed by Yellow who was studying the grass.

Red sobered when they reached the others. "Stay behind me," he told Yellow.

"Oh, the witch is here," Emerald said. Crys immediately went to Red's side in front of Yellow and glared at Emerald. She opened her mouth but Yellow grabbed her arm and shook her head.

The atmosphere was very uncomfortable and Red wasn't sure what to do about it. The group was split now, but the others would soon realize that Yellow was harmless. He hoped so anyway.

"Make sure the witch stays away from our side."

"She has a name," Crys snapped.

"What do you mean, 'your side'?" Red asked.

"We decided the people who are okay with...that will stay in the front wagons and the rest will stay in the back," Pearl explained.

"So go to the front."

Deciding fighting the decision would make things worse, Red, Yellow and Crys walked away from the others to the front wagons. Lyra came after them followed by Wally. The others all stayed put. Dia didn't surprise Red, he would of course stay with Platina, though he imagined things would be strained for him for a while. Gold though...

Crys turned and stared at the black haired boy. "You voted for her to stay, are you coming?"

Gold just stared at the ground. It was the first time Red had ever seen the other boy at a loss for words. "Come on Yellow," Crys said dragging the blonde girl by the arm.

When they got to the front wagon Yellow apologized. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come back."

"You haven't done anything wrong!" Crys defended. "This is how people always are. At the orphanage people always treated us as if it were our fault we were in that situation, but it wasn't. And it isn't your fault that you were born with some weird power. I don't get why Gold and Emerald are being so awful about it. They were both orphans too!"

"But, they're nobles aren't they?" Wally asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Everyone is taught that witches are evil," Wally explained. "But noble families, we take it a step further. It's not just that magic is bad, it's that everything that is bad comes from magic. I don't believe it, but it can be difficult to change your mind about something that you've always considered to be true."

Crys didn't seem appeased by this, but she didn't say anything.

"Don't worry Yellow," Lyra said to the downhearted girl. "I'm sure they'll come around!" Red wasn't so sure, but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Thanks Lyra," Yellow murmured.

* * *

><p><em>With Gold<em>

Gold still wasn't sure what to think. Yellow was a witch. She didn't line up with any of his images of witches or any of the drawings he'd seen in books (which generally depicted people with lots of warts and crazy hair). He didn't think she was evil either. If, yesterday someone had asked him who the least threatening person in the group was, he would have said Yellow. But now, now Gold wasn't so sure. He certainly wanted to believe that Yellow was good, but Lord Elm had taught him that witches (and wizards) were pure evil. Soulless even. So was Elm lying to him? Or maybe Elm really didn't know better. Or the third possibility, simultaneously the most horrific and the most relieving, Yellow _was_ evil and was simply an amazing actress. He honestly wasn't sure which one he wanted to be true. He didn't want Yellow to be evil, but it would make things a lot easier if she was.

He said yes because he didn't want Yellow to die, but that wasn't Gold's only reason. The real reason he'd said yes to her staying was because he didn't want Crys to hate him. But he still, he still just couldn't bring himself to stay in the same place as Yellow. What if Lord Elm was right? What if Yellow _was_ evil? But, Crys was staying with her, Gold realized. So if it turned out that Yellow really was a danger, then Crys would be in trouble. Realizing this, Gold got up and suddenly sprinted to the front wagons.

"Gold, what are you doing?" Emerald yelled after him. Gold ignored him.

When he got to the front wagons, he was greeted by Crys glaring at him. "What do you want Gold?" She asked.

"I want to stay up here," he said.

"I was under the impression that you think Yellow is dangerous."

"Yeah, she could be a danger to you!"

"I don't need your protection," Crys snapped. "Especially not from Yellow!"

"But-"

"No, if you think she's dangerous, then go back."

Gold stared at Crys, not sure what to do. He didn't want to fight with her, he never really had before. They'd bickered of course, but they hadn't really fought about important things. At the end of the day Gold always knew that if it mattered, Crys would have his back. But now? Now he wasn't so sure.

* * *

><p><em>With Crys<em>

Crys watched Gold walk back to the others with a heavy heart. She didn't really want to send him away, but she wasn't going to force Yellow to spend time with someone who would stare at her as if she were some sort of monster the whole time. And really, more than that, Crys was just disappointed. She'd thought Gold would see past prejudices and see Yellow for who she was, but he didn't. Emerald didn't either, which disappointed her, but not nearly as much. The reason was obvious to Crys no matter how much she tried to bury it: She liked Gold, more than as a friend. But if he couldn't see past Yellow, would he see past her station? After all, she was only a maid, and Gold was a noble. It wasn't quite the same thing, but it was similar enough for Crys to worry about.

"I'm sorry," Yellow apologized again when Crys got in the wagon.

"It isn't your fault Yellow."

"Yes it is. I knew this would happen. I should have left earlier."

"It isn't your fault," Crys repeated. "You haven't done anything wrong. In fact, you saved White's Deerling! She should be thanking you, not trying to cast you out."

"Everyone is like that," Yellow said. "It's not their fault either."

"Well they'd better see the truth soon," Crys grumbled. "Or I am going to seriously hurt someone."

"Don't do that on my account," Yellow pleaded. And that was it really, how could the others possibly believe this girl could be evil? This girl who even still cared about the ones who wanted to abandon her.

Red and Wally appeared in the wagon. "Lyra and Black are driving," announced Red. "We've apparently decided that the two drivers will be one from each team so to speak. That way we're sure no one will get left behind." Yellow just looked sad.

"Hey Wally, why are you with us?" Crys wondered. "The other nobles all don't want anything to do with her, even Gold and he voted yes."

"I've been sickly my whole life," Wally explained. "Some people think I'm cursed, and some of those people think I should die because of that. I understand first hand that our peoples' prejudices against magic are unreasonable and I don't think people should be sentenced until they've actually done something wrong."

"Thank you," Yellow said quietly. Wally smiled at the girl and the two shared a moment of kinship.

* * *

><p>With Silver<p>

Silver hoped they were getting close, they had been flying for over an hour now. But there was no way of telling how far the teleport took them. Silver knew it couldn't be too incredibly far away - teleports have limits, but Silver wasn't familiar enough with teleports to know how far it is they could have gone.

"Are we there yet?" Sapphire asked.

"No!" Ruby yelled. "If we were we would have stopped!"

Silver tuned them out. He'd given up trying to stop them after the first three arguments. Those two were truly terrible to be around. Silver missed Blue and her easy company. Blue would have some sort of scheme that would keep those two loudmouths quiet, unfortunately Silver was not quite in sync with Blue enough to know what that plan would be or how to enact it. So he waited and hoped that they would see Blue soon and that when they found her, she'd do something about his annoying hangers on.

* * *

><p><em>With Blue<em>

Following the grunt was almost excruciatingly boring. The sticky paint worked like a charm, so all they had to do was follow the path of little blue blobs. Blue had amused herself at first by getting Jiggly to fly in slightly erratic patterns, which made Green make some truly picture-worthy faces. Unfortunately he'd caught onto her game fairly quickly and now no matter what Jiggly did he remained annoyingly expressionless.

They flew over mountains and over rivers, Janine scouting ahead every so often to make sure their quarry was still close and to refresh the sticky paint.

"How far is this guy going?" Green wondered.

"I think we've left Johto," Janine replied.

"Hoenn?" Blue asked.

"I think so," Janine said.

"So he's probably not a member of Team Rocket then," Green said, though his tone was unsurprised.

"Hoenn has its own criminal teams, doesn't it?" Blue asked. "Maybe he's with one of them."

"That's possible," Janine agreed. "But I don't know what he was doing at the Rocket base."

"Maybe the group in Hoenn is after the artifacts as well," Koga suggested.

"I think we'll find out soon," Blue said. "He's slowing down." Blue pointed at the paint trail. The drips were getting closer together implying that the Golbat was slowing down. This meant that the man as probably going to stop soon, either for a break or for his destination. Blue hoped it was the latter. Tracking someone was exciting for the first few minutes, then quickly grew boring.

As they grew closer, Blue could faintly see the grunt in the distance, he was approaching a mountain. Then his Golbat swooped down towards it. "That must be his destination," Blue said. "We should hit the ground before we get there so we can sneak in."

"Agreed," said Janine. They flew for a few more minutes and then had their Pokemon veer off course and drop them a bit away from where the grunt had landed. The rocky landscape was not nearly as good as the forest for sneaking, but Blue could make due. The group returned all the Pokemon and crept forwards. The man was speaking to someone at the door, but they were too far away for Blue to make it out. The man was let inside, but the man at the door remained. _A door guard_, Blue assumed.

"We should wait and see if we can get an opening," Janine whispered.

"What if we can't?" Green asked.

"Then we bust our way in," Blue replied.

They sat quietly and waited and found that when the guard changed, there was a brief opening where one man went inside before another came out. Unfortunately, they weren't sure when then guard would shift again so they were stuck waiting out this guard's shift so they could get the timing right.

"This is taking too long," Green grumbled.

"Be patient," Blue replied.

Eventually the man turned towards the door and the group prepared to make their move. Then a Tropius appeared and smashed into the mountainside.

* * *

><p><em>A few minutes earlier<em>

_With Sapphire_

Sapphire, Ruby and Silver had been following the trail of light for quite some time now and Sapphire could feel Pilo getting tired.

"We better get there soon," Sapphire grumbled. "Pilo can't take much more of this."

"Neither can I," Ruby said.

"Who cares about you?" Sapphire asked.

"Shut up," Silver's voice cut across the air between them. "We're getting close."

Sapphire glanced at Silver and noticed that the light, which had been pointing slightly downward before, was now sharply declining.

"We're almost on top of em'!" Sapphire said excitedly.

"We should land," Silver said and he directed his Murkrow to land on a flattish part of the mountain.

"Land Pilo!" Sapphire commanded. Pilo heard the command, but was so exhausted that when he tried to veer off course, he was able to turn but not able to change his course quickly enough and ended up smashing into the mountain. Sapphire held onto Pilo desperately, but Ruby was knocked aside.

"Ruby!" Sapphire yelled and she let go of Pilo to try to help the falling boy. She managed to grab his hand and with her other she got a hold of Pilo's tail. The Tropius had managed to right itself, but it was still sliding down the mountain. When it noticed its trainer's predicament it managed to sweep its tail over to a ledge on the mountain leaving Sapphire and Ruby safely on solid ground.

After a dazed moment, Sapphire ran to the edge and returned Pilo before he could take anymore damage from the fall. Sapphire then fell backwards in relief. "We made it!" She yelled.

Ruby just stared in shocked silence, completely unmoving. "Come on," Sapphire said encouragingly. "It wasn't that bad!"

"You saved me," Ruby finally said. "Thank you."

Sapphire felt a blush rising at his surprisingly sincere words and fought it down. Before she could respond (and she was sure she would have thought of something cool and clever to say) Blue's head appeared above them, staring down from a higher ledge.

"You two know how to make an entrance," she said.

"Yep!" Sapphire said confidently.

"Get up here," Blue said. Sapphire looked at the jagged rock wall between them and decided she'd rather not climb that. Blue noticed and turned to speak with someone behind her. Then two Crobat appeared and lifted Sapphire and Ruby up to the others. Sapphire noted that Silver was there and seemed no worse for wear so he had probably avoided the falling Tropius.

"We were going to sneak in, but since you announced our presence I guess we'll just bust in," Blue said.

"My specialty," Sapphire said excitedly.

"Uh, who are these people?" asked a woman in ninja gear.

"Oh! Right, Janine, Janine's dad ("Koga," he grumbled), and Falker, this is Sapphire, Ruby and Silver," Blue introduced.

"Where are we?" Ruby asked, evidently recovered from his scare.

"Dunno," Blue said. "We were following this guy and he came here. But we're wasting time, come on!" She led and the others followed, some more confused that others.

"How did you even find us?" Green asked as they ran.

"It turns out that Platina has this magic ring," Sapphire said. "And then Lyra could use it and we were tracking you. But then this other guy came and took it and Silver went after 'em and I went after Silver and Ruby's here for some reason." She paused to take a breath. "Then Silver caught the guy and grabbed the ring and it turned out he could use it too and we came here and now we're here!"

"...What?" Green said.

"It's a long story," Ruby said diplomatically. "We can explain later."

"Magic ring huh," Blue mused. "I wonder how much it's worth."

"Of course that's the part you'd care about," Green muttered.

By this point they'd reached the door, which was slightly difficult to reach now because of the debris in front of it. Sapphire and Green moved some of the larger rocks and they were about to try the door when it flew open. They quickly jumped out of the way as several men and women (all dressed in red) came running out. It was clearly an evacuation.

"Oops," Sapphire said. "I guess this is our fault."

"Our?" Ruby repeated. "This is your fault! I had nothing to do with it!"

"Pilo's not used to carryin' more than just me," Sapphire countered. "So it _is_ your fault."

"Stop arguing and let's see if there's anything left in there for us to see."

By the time the group had gotten inside, it was devoid of people. They had all either run back out the front door or flown out the roof entrance. Sapphire hadn't seen that before, so there was probably some mechanism inside which opened the top of the mountain. Which Sapphire thought was incredibly cool.

While the people had all left, there was still stuff laying around. The important things had presumably been taken, but there wasn't time for them to grab everything.

"Team Magma," Green read holding a small book.

"What is that?" Blue asked, sidling over to Green to get a closer look.

Green shrugged. "It looks like some sort of handbook."

"Team Magma is a crime organization in Hoenn," Sapphire said. "It and Team Aqua are the major threats here."

"And you know this why?" Ruby wondered.

"We studied the criminal organizations of all the kingdoms. Just because they aren't a threat to Kanto now doesn't mean they never will be."

"Smart," Blue commented.

"Look at this," Janine said. She had been rooting through a desk and held up a stack of papers she'd found inside.

Blue took the top one and read it aloud. "Necklace, acquired. Staff, acquired. Crystal, acquired. Ring, in possession of Platina Berlitz! These people are after Platina!"

"Keep reading," Janine suggested.

"Cape, in possession of Steven Stone. Cards, in the possession of Lyra of the Fortune Gypsies."

"What are all those?" Sapphire wondered.

"I think they're artifacts from the seer kingdom," Janine said. "Lyra's cards are certainly magic."

"So is Platina's ring," Ruby added. "But Silver has that right now, so their paper's wrong."

"The necklace," Green said. "There's a necklace in my family that is passed down and People said it had powers. Daisy had it when she disappeared."

"So these people did take your family!" Blue exclaimed.

"It's possible," Green said.

"We need to find Lyra," Koga said. "She's in danger."

"We can use the ring," Ruby suggested, looking pointedly at Silver.

"I don't know how to work it," he said.

"But you used it to bring us here!" Sapphire exclaimed.

"Lyra mentioned her cards have some sort of mental component," Janine cut in. "I'd probably have a better chance of finding her because I've known her longer."

"Worth a try," Blue said, gesturing at Silver to hand the ring over. He did so but Sapphire could see the reluctance in his eyes.

Janine set the ring in the palm of her hand and said, "Okay. Lyra. I want to go to Lyra...please?" And then, as if the word 'please' really was magic, the thin thread of magic Sapphire was getting used to appeared.

"Alrighty," Blue said. "Let's go back to Lyra."

"What about the other Oaks?" Sapphire asked. "We still don't know where they are."

"We know that whoever is after Lyra's artifact is the same group as the one who took my family. When they come for her we can get information out of them," Green said.

"Let's go then!" Sapphire exclaimed. "Uh, but Pilo is tired and can't carry anyone for a while."

"No problem!" Blue exclaimed. "Jiggly is more than capable of carrying several people!"

"Jiggly?" Ruby said. "As in a Jigglypuff? And you want me to _fly_ on it?"

"Yep!" Blue replied. "It's perfectly safe!"

"I think I'll wait for Pilo to recover," Sapphire said.

"There's no need," Falkner commented. "I have several flying Pokemon." He released four Pokemon, a Pidgeot, a Skarmlry, a Noctowl and a Staraptor.

"You had extra flying Pokemon?" Green asked. "And you let me fly over here on that pink thing!"

"You agreed to fly on it so I didn't see any point in offering one of my Pokemon."

Green was giving off a murderous aura as everyone mounted flying (or normal-type) Pokemon and they set off, Janine leading the way with the ring on her finger.


End file.
